The PET III
by terratasha
Summary: Axess: In the heat of their battle with Nebula, Lan and Chaud get a new partner: Terra and her navi Whisper, but someone is keeping secrets; and it all comes out sooner or later! Not to mention that there's someone lurking in the darkness...
1. The New Girl

Chapter 1

The New Girl

Lan Hikari skated swiftly down the long winding halls of SciLab carrying his father's flash-drive in his pocket. Once again his dad had left his stuff in the dirty laundry, he chucked to himself, his mom always said that his dad would lose his head if it wasn't attached to his body. When he reached his father's lab he was surprised, it was always busy but this was unlike anything he had ever seen.

"Dad what's going on?" Lan asked. There were many scientists rushing around Sci Lab, the warning lights were flashing and a constant "BONG, BONG, BONG," could be heard.

Dr. Hikari turned around at the sound of his son's voice walking over to meet him. "Well ever since you and Chaud intercepted that shipment of darkchips we've tried to see how the chips operate, see what makes them tick, But so far we've had little progress, and even worse the power of the darkchips, wherever it's coming from is taxing our systems." Dr. Hikari replied. To coincide with his statement the main computer that was trying to decipher the chips constantly flashed 'Error' over and over again, and ever so often another computer monitor would spark. "But thankfully help is on the way, Chief Keifer is bring in one of Metro City's top scientist, Dr. Javedson, to help us."

Lan recognized the name.

"Hey, isn't he the guy you were best friends with when you were in high school?"

"Yes he is, he's also the one who actually one got me seriously interested in science. We went our separate ways after college but we've remained in pretty good touch. He has a daughter your age, her name's Terra. I think she's starting school today so you'll probably meet her. And speaking of school, shouldn't you be there, you're going to late." He replied looking at his watch.

"Yeah, I going to get there dad, but mom sent me over with this." Lan said taking the flash-drive out of his pocket. "Seems like you left this at home."

"I was wondering where that was." Dr. Hikari, taking the drive, then he looked at his watch again. "Lan you really need to get to school."

"Don't worry dad I'm on it!" Lan replied already half way down the hall. Since he was looking behind him he didn't see where he was going and almost ran in to Famous. Thankfully he turned around at the last second.

"Oh Mr. Famous I'm so sorry I didn't see you!" Lan said instantly apologizing.

"How many times do I have to tell you its Famous, no mister! Anyway I'm glad I ran into you. Since things with Nebula are escalating faster than we thought they would SciLab is bringing in another doctor to help decipher the mystery that the darkchips have created."

"Dr. Javedson? Yeah, I know, my dad just told me." Lan replied.

"Well that's not everything. I as well as Chief Keifer know how powerful you and Chaud are with and without crossfusion. And we don't mean to put down your net battling skills down by any means; but the darkloid threat is growing, and with their power being increased with the darkchips they're becoming more of a problem. The chief thought it would best if another netsaver was paired with you and Chaud, just to be on the safe side. She's coming in today for her syncrochip chip fitting and training. I've already spoken with Chaud, he's going to be here to meet her."

"What I minute," Lan asked, "her?"

"Yes, you new partner is a girl but don't let that fool you, she's a pretty good netbattler." Famous replied.

"No problem, I'll be here." Lan replied skating off. "Having a girl on the team will definitely be different." Lan wasn't sure if he'd like it though, he had just gotten use to Chaud.

"What do you think she'll be like?" Megaman asked.

"I don't know," Lan replied taking out his P.E.T., "Hopefully she'll be nothing like Raika."

"That's for sure." Megaman replied with a chuckle.

* * *

"Maylu?" Ms. Mari asked.

"Present." She replied.

"Tory?"

"Present."

"Lan?"

"Present!" Lan exclaimed as he ran in the door.

Miss Mari's sweet deposition turned into a sterner one.

"You're late Lan." She said.

"Sorry, Mrs. Mari, my mom had me give something to my dad that he forgot this morning."

"Well, I guess I can forgive you then." Miss Mari replied as Lan took his seat. "After all with all that's going on I can understand how scatter-brained you father must me, just don't make a habit out of being late please? Darkloids or not you still have to get your education."

"Don't worry Miss Mari, I'll try not to." Lan replied with his famous grin.

Miss Mari shook her head in amusement, Lan was a good kid but she highly doubted that he would keep his promise, after all he had been chronically late to her class for three years. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the principal motioning for her to the door. "Excuse me class." Miss Mari said before leaving the room.

Lan and the rest of the class looked intently at the door and watched Miss Mari talk to the principal, soon she reappeared.

"Class looks like we have a new student." She said gesturing for the child to come in.

"This is Terra Javedson." The whole class had focused their attention on the girl as she walked in the room.

Terra was an attractive African-American girl with expressive bright green eyes and long raven hair with purple highlights, which was pulled back in a e-z comb and hung down in a fountain effect. Her current outfit consisted of a cropped black cardigan, a purple, white, gray and black argyle sweater tee, a pair of dark washed blue jeans, and black sneakers; a purple PET was in her right hand and a gray and black messenger bag hung on her left shoulder. She gave a short wave to the class and Lan could tell right off that Terra was in no way a shy person.

"Terra's moved here from Metro City, her father works at SciLab," Miss Mari said further introducing the new student to the class. "Terra there's an empty desk next to Lan and Maylu. They're those two there."

When Terra took her seat next to him, Lan was fixing to introduce himself when he realized something. He knew when his dad had mentioned her name that morning that he had remembered it from some place other than in connection with this father's friend but he couldn't place it; when he saw her face it all came back. She had been at the N1 Grand Prix three years before. If he could remember correctly the girl had made it to the quarter finals before she had been taken out of the running. He smiled, he wondered if she would be up for a netbattle after school.

"I'm Maylu." The red-haired girl said introducing herself first.

"Maylu? That's a pretty name." Terra replied. "I'm Terra, but of course you already know that."

After waiting for a few seconds for Lan to introduce himself Maylu elbowed him prompting him to speak.

"Oh! and um, I'm Lan." He said finally introducing himself, "So your Dr. Javedson's daughter? Somehow I pictured you differently." He finally said.

"It's nice to meet you too." Terra replied a little off. _What had Lan pictured her as? A nerd?_ "You must be Dr. Hikari's son. I remember you from the N1 Grand Prix three years ago, you're really good. I guess the brilliance is inherited."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Lan said basking in the attention.

"What brilliance?" Maylu asked. "The only thing you're brilliant at is net battling."

Lan's face faulted.

"Anyway," Maylu said slightly snickering at Lan's crushed ego, "How do you two know about each other?" Maylu asked.

"Our dads went to school together." Terra replied. "They met in junior high and were best friends right through college. They went their own ways after that."

"Hey! Have you forgotten about me?" a voice spoke up.

"And this loud mouth," Terra said picking up her PET off her desk, "is my netnavi Whisper."

In the cyberworld Megaman and Roll introduced themselves.

"Hi, I'm Megaman."

"And I'm Roll."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Whisper." The netnavi replied.

Megaman and Roll gave the new navi a look over. She was a human netnavi like them, and about the same height and size. Like Megaman she was practically identical to her net op, only difference being her eye color and the way she wore her hair. Her eyes were blue, while Terra's were green, and instead of her hair being pulled up it was down with a ribbon tying it together at the center.

Her jump suit was jet black with wide sliver stripes down the sides that extended into long-sleeves that covered all but the tips of her thin blue-violet gloves and down into a pair of thin-soled boots; the jump suit was topped with a purple cropped v'd necked piece, that had a darker purple vertical stripe running down the center of her top that lined up with the color-blocked pattern that was on her jump-suit, and a skirt piece of the same pattern that was held up with three crisscrossed thin silver belts. Her symbol that was on her chest as well as her helmet consisted of a swirl pattern with one side light purple and the other being silver. She also had a pair of shades that were propped up on her helmet.

"So how do you like Den Tech City so far?" Megaman asked.

"Well it's a lot like Metro City, not many differences." Whisper replied.

Back in the real word Lan Maylu and Terra were starting to hit it off.

"I still can't believe that our dad's ended up being scientist after high school." Terra stated with a shake of her head.

"Why can't you believe that?" Lan asked.

"Has your dad ever told you any stories back from when he was in school?"

"No, not really, he doesn't talk about it much." Lan replied.

"Ok, our dads may have been the smartest guys on campus; but they were the class clowns. There was more of a chance that they'd use their knowledge to pull a prank on someone than to use it to benefit humanity."

"You're kidding!" Lan exclaimed at this bit of information.

"No, I'm not. They were in the principal's office at least once a month if not twice." Terra replied. "It's amazing that they never managed to get expelled."

"So your telling me that Lan may be his father's son after all?" Maylu asked. "Scary."

Lan was just about to object when Miss Mari popped up from nowhere behind the trio.

"Ahem." Miss Mari said. "I know you want to get to know Terra a bit better but we do have work to do."

"Yes, Miss. Mari." The three replied.

* * *

By the end of the school day Lan and Maylu pretty much had put in a claim on Terra.

"So do you miss your friends yet?" Maylu asked as she, Terra, and Lan left the campus.

"Not too much." Terra replied. "But it's only been one weekend. Things were kinda crazy, one second I'm starting another school year, then a month later my dad gets the offer to work for Sci-Lab to help out with this darkchip mystery. But it's not suppose to be forever; we're going back after just as soon as it's over. Plus Metro City is only an hour away by train; it's not like I can't go back and visit."

"Where are you and your folks staying?" Lan asked.

"Um, Cherry Blossom Lane?" Terra said as she tried to remember the address. "We're renting the house, it's a nice place."

"You're kidding!" Maylu exclaimed when she recognized the street name. "That's only one street over from where Lan and I live."

"Cool! Do you walk to school?" Terra asked. "If you tell me when you and Lan leave I can go with you."

"Yeah we do and I'd like that." Maylu replied. "But most of the time it will probably be just you and me. Lan has a problem with punctuality."

"Hey, that's enough Lan bashing for one day." Lan said as he cut his eyes at his friend. "So, are you going straight home or do you think you have some time to see the town and hang out?" Lan asked as he turned his attention back to the other girl.

"Well, I have to be some where later but I have about an hour." Terra replied.

"Well then let me take you to the most exciting place in the whole city, my arcade!" Lan exclaimed leading the way.

"His arcade?" Terra asked Maylu.

"Yeah, if you haven't noticed already Lan has a big ego. Something you'll just have to get use to if you choose to be his friend. He's won most of his net battles here."

When Lan entered the arcade at least three boy came up to him demanding a net battle. Since Lan and Megaman were almost legendary everyone wanted their shot taking them down, as well as Lan's ego. But soon all of them had been defeated sill leaving Lan and Megaman with the most netbattle wins on record in the arcade's history. Most of the kids wanted someone to bring Lan off his high horse but they didn't want to suffer the humiliation of loosing. Soon they noticed Terra watching Lan intently. They had found their scapegoat.

"Why don't you battle him?" A boy asked.

"Oh, no thanks." Terra replied turning around. But the boys weren't going to give up so easily. Soon they had gained up in enough numbers to literally push her onto the platform.

"Battle, Battle, Battle." They chanted.

Terra saw that it was a lost cause to try and get down so she turned to face her challenger.

"Well, I don't know if this is a good way to start our friendship." She said.

"Don't worry I'll make it quick." Lan replied a little full of himself.

"Oh, we'll see about that, Jack in Whisper power up!"

Once she was jacked in Whisper turned to face Mega.

"Looks like this will be a friendly battle among friends." Megaman said.

"Seams so." Whisper replied.

"Ok, enough chit-chat Megaman." Lan said.

"Right, megabuster!" Megaman said as his hand transformed and fired.

Whisper easily dodged his attack.

"Ok, Whisper lets bring down Lan's ego a couple of rungs." Terra said.

"I'm on it, whispershock!" Whisper exclaimed as she twirled around in a manner similar to Roll and brought up her right index finger to her lips causing a stream of light purple energy to be directed toward and suround Megaman but it soon disipated into thin air.

"Looks like Whisper's default is faulty." Lan said thinking that this would be another easy victory. Unknown to him Terra was just as determined as he was minus the ego.

"You would think that wouldn't you?" Terra replied. Unknown to Lan and Megaman Whispers's default weapon's plasma was invisible once it was activated. Yet her shades that she had flipped down over her eyes enabled her to see where her attack was directed. Soon Megaman felt as if he had been hit by an electric attack but, he felt it from the _inside_ out.

"Aahh!" he yelled as he went down with sparks coming out from within him.

"That's amazing." Lan said under his breath, but he wasn't prepared to lose.

"Fire sword battlechip in download." he exclaimed.

"Aqua sword battlechip in download!" Terra counteracted.

Soon Megaman and Whisper were at each other trying to find an advantage but they were pretty evenly matched.

"Not bad." Megaman commended.

"Right back at ya." Whisper replied smiling. But looks can be deceiving. There were two reasons that she was smiling. One was because of the situation that she and Megaman were in; and the second was because she had found what she was looking for. With a quick spin kick she ducked down and knocked Megaman's feet right from under him, and delivered an attack with her sword."

Lan couldn't believe this, Megaman hadn't touched Whisper once and she had already delivered two attacks on him. No wonder she and her op had made it to the N1 Grand Prix's quarter finials.

"Ok, that's it, no more kids stuff." Lan said. "Longsword battlechip in, download."

Right when Megaman was going to strike Whisper vanished.

"Where'd she go?" Lan and Megaman asked simultaneously.

"Right here." Whisper replied, but she remained unseen.

"Geyser, battlechip in download!" Terra exclaimed.

Suddenly Megaman was lifted into the air by the water. When he landed Whisper reappeared right before his eyes, only problem was she hadn't used an aerasteal battlechip. Terra saw the look of disbelief on Lan's face and answered the question that she was sure he was gonna ask.

"Whisper has three default weaponry skills you've already seen two. Want to guess what her third charm is?" Terra said knowing that she was getting under Lan's skin.

Lan couldn't believe this! He had wanted to show off his net battling skills to impress Terra. Now he was the one getting educated. His ego was getting shot and his pride bowed over, but this just made him fight harder.

"Boomerang battlechip in download!" he exclaimed.

Megaman aimed and fired but Whisper didn't even try to get out of its path. When the boomerang came to her it didn't make contact, it passed _through _her like she wasn't even there.

"You can phase?" Megaman asked, almost in awe.

"Don't look so surprised," Whisper replied, "it's not like you don't have a couple of tricks up you glove."

"And you're about to see them." Lan replied. "Aerasteal, air shoes, and wide sword battlechips in download."

Megaman once again made an attack and this time almost tripped when Whisper disappeared for good.

"Whisper logging out."

"Hey, what'd you do that for?" he asked when he noticed that the battle had been terminated.

"Message." Terra said reading an e-mail on her PET, it was from Chief Keifer telling her that it was time to come to Sci-Lab; but she couldn't tell Lan and Maylu that, being a netsaver was sopose to be a secret. "My mom wants me home, apparently she doesn't like the cardboard box look in my room. I'll see you guys tomorrow. Bye Maylu." She said as she passed.

"Well don't think this is over, you still owe me a netbattle!" Lan exclaimed.

"Trust me I won't forget!" Terra said as she ran off.

When Lan looked at his watch he noticed that it was time for him to be a Sci Lab.

When he arrived Chaud was already there.

"Has the recruit shown up yet?" Lan asked when he walked up to him.

"No, not yet." Chaud replied.

"So how do you feel about someone else being on the team?" Lan asked.

"You mean how do I feel that the new recruit is a girl?" Chaud asked. When he saw that that was what Lan had meant he continued. "I doesn't bother me really. With Nebula and the darkliods getting more and more powerful we need all the help we can get."

"Yeah I guess you're right." Lan said. But to himself he was thinking something different. When he and Megaman were the only ones who could crossfuse the ability had felt special. When Chaud and Protoman had been promoted and they received their syncrochip it had taken some of the spark away. Especially since they had been rivals at the time. But over the last few months they had become pretty good friends which when he thought about it surprised him. When had that happened anyway? One day they couldn't stand one another and the next they were friends. His train of thought was broken when Chaud spoke.

"Here comes Famous, Chief Keifer, and Manuela, they have someone with them."

When the group came into view Lan recognized the person they had with them right away.

"Terra, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"You know one another?" the chief asked.

"Yeah, she's in my class." Lan replied.

"_She's_ your new partner." Famous and Manuela both said answering Lan's question.

"Terra is this true?" Lan asked dumbfounded.

But Terra hadn't even seen him, she was only paying attention to Chaud.

"Chaud?" she asked, surprised to see the boy there.

"Terra?" Chaud asked returning the question with an equal amount of shock.

"Oh my goodness!" Terra exclaimed giving Chaud a hug and surprisingly he returned it.

All Lan could think was:

"What's going on here!"

TBC


	2. Childhood Memories

Chapter 2

Childhood Memories

When no one would give him an answer Lan lost it.

"Would someone tell me what going on here?"

It was then that Terra noticed Lan.

"Lan what are you doing here?" she asked.

"He and Chaud are partners." Manuela replied.

"You're a netsaver?" Terra asked.

"Yeah, why?" Lan asked.

"I don't know, you didn't seem like the type, you seem so theatrical and impulsive." Terra replied.

"You would think that but Lan becomes pretty serious when it comes to netsaver work." Chaud remarked.

"Yes, like the proverb says, there's a time for work and a time for play." The chief said. "And this is a time for work. The darkloids aren't going to give us a break so we wont give them a break either. Come Terra the lab is this way." He said pointing the direction.

"Ok," Lan said as they followed the chief, "no ones answered my question, how do you know each other?" Lan asked gesturing to Terra and Chaud.

"Rae and I use to know one another when we were little." Chaud replied.

"Wait a minute, Rae?" Lan asked.

"That's Chaud's name for me. My full name is Araya Terra Ann Javedson. I answer to Terra, Araya, or Rae, it just depends on the person. But anyway when I was five Chaud moved to my old neighborhood in Metro City; my family was kinda like the welcome wagon of the neighborhood, so one day we brought over some food and Chaud and I were best friends over the next two years until he moved. Since we were only seven lost touch. It's a good thing I never forget a face. But one thing I want to know is can I beat the great Chaud Blaze, the famous child protégé and vice president if Blaze Quest Games in a net battle?" Terra asked.

"We'll see about that later." Chaud replied. "So how'd you get to be a netsaver anyway?"

"I was in the right place at the wrong time." Terra replied. "Before my dad was requested to join the Nebula task force he was doing some research the dark chips back in Metro. After a while the darkloids caught on and sent in one of their low levels to wreck my dads work. He was this short guy and wasn't scary at all, his name was Bubbleman I think, anyway I was there and was able to chase him off. News floated around until it reached your chief; he said he needed some more help since Nebula was getting stronger and all, and since my dad was going to be here anyway he asked me if I was interested, and I said yeah. I have to admit though that I think he overestimated me, I don't think I'm as good as he thinks I am."

"I can see that happen." Chaud replied with a chuckle.

Lan was a little confused. Chaud always seemed to have this "cool" about him. He was very self-assured, and at times a little arrogant, but since he had seen Terra he seemed to become a totally different person. At least he seemed more relaxed.

"Wow!" Terra said as they entered the lab. "This place is amazing!"

"Your fathers lab doesn't look like this?" Lan asked.

"My dad worked for one of those hard-core science foundations. Your dad works for a research facility. The labs have a different set up." Terra replied.

"Dr. Hikari is everything ready?" Famous asked.

"Yes, everything has been set up." He replied. "I'll need to give Terra's navi a look over and then we'll be ready to go. Do you mind if I give Whisper a look over before we begin?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"No, not at all, how'd you know my navi's name?" Terra asked, handing him her PET.

"Well, I built her, actually your father did, he wrote her program and I put her together. Well, Whisper has a clean bill of health, we can begin. So are you ready for the big jump?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Terra replied a little nervous. "I'm still not really sure about this."

"Believe me it may seem to be a little scary now but there's nothing to be worried about, you're in good hands." Dr. Hikari said handing her a syncrochip, "Ok, then let's get started, places everyone!"

* * *

Seconds later Terra found herself in the room where the dimensional area would be set, PET in one hand and syncrochip in the other.

"Are you ready?" Dr. Hikari asked over the intercom. Terra gave a thumbs up sign as a reply. Soon the dimensional area formed sealing Terra inside. "When ever you're ready."

Terra let out a deep breath. "Okay Whisper let's show them what we can do, syncrochip in and download, begin crossfusion now!" Suddenly Whisper's data began to stream from her PET fusing with her own DNA. Terra looked on with amazement as Whisper's data began to take shape, it looked like a jigsaw puzzle was forming over her. Within the next few seconds the transformation was complete.

"Terra, we're going to be sending you some viruses, the more you delete the more powerful they're going to get. If it gets to becomes too much for you, you just let us know." Famous said.

"I don't think that that's going to be anytime soon." Lan commented.

"Why would you say that?" Chaud asked.

"I challenged her to a netbattle earlier today, she's pretty good."

All of a sudden menture viruses were coming at her from every direction with their annoying "Met, met, met."

"Don't those things just get on your nerves?" Terra said asking her navi.

"Absolutely." Whisper replied.

"Then let's make them history, whispershock!" Terra exclaimed, twirling around releasing the plasma in every direction. Once the attack hit the viruses they were deleted one by one.

Next came the elect eye viruses, their antennas shooting out their electrical lighting. Terra dodged their attacks and when she was out of their range returned an attack of her own.

"Wave, battlechip in," she called as she pressed the palm of her hand to the floor and the cyber water sprung up deleting the viruses.

"Wow her power levels are amazing." Chaud remarked looking at one of the monitors.

"How amazing?" Lan asked.

"They're right around what yours and Megaman's were when you started, they're a little lower though."

When they turned their attention back to Terra she had already fought her way through two more levels of viruses and was now surrounded by a pack of spiky viruses. But she didn't seem worried at all. When she taunted the snarling viruses and they lunged at her she effortlessly jumped from within their circle and let the viruses collide and delete them selves.

"Amazing, not only is she a good netbattler but she's resourceful as well." Famous commented.

"Yes she is it's too bad she can't do more than stretch her legs, but we have to stop. We don't want her to have too big of an audience." Dr. Hikari added.

Terra was awaiting the next level of viruses when she heard Lan's father's voice.

"That's enough for today Terra, you can take a break."

"But I'm just getting started." Terra said slightly complaining.

"I know, but the chief thinks that it would be best that we don't use the dimensional areas for long periods of time. We don't want to draw Nebula's attention.

When the area disappeared she started to make her way out and back to the observation deck.

"So how'd I do?" she asked.

Dr. Hikari was about to make a reply when something unexpected happened. The darkloids dimensional area generators rose form the ground encompassing all of Sci-Lab inside a dimensional area.

"What's going on?" Terra asked when neon color flooded the room and tension began to fill the air.

"I don't know, but whatever it is it isn't good." Famous replied.

Since Terra hadn't removed her syncrochip from her PET she instantly regained her crossfusion and not a second too soon. All of a sudden a fire blast hit her square in the back knocking her into the wall. When the ringing in her ears stopped all she could hear was maniacal laughter and turning around she came face-to-face to who it belonged to. Burnerman - she had heard about him and knew he wasn't someone you fooled around with.

"What are you doing here?" Lan demanded instantly activating his crossfusion.

"Well when I noticed that a dimensional area was in use I wanted to know what was going on. Come to find out that you're training another netsaver brat, to bad she'll be deleted before she gets her first mission. Burning jet!" he exclaimed as he flew toward her.

"Everyone get out of here!" Chaud exclaimed, activating his crossfusion as well, "Terra run!"

Terra listened to him and took off down the hall just barely escaping Burnerman's attack.

"Oh, no you don't." Burnerman said noticing Terra trying to escape. "Flame tower!" he exclaimed setting the hall ahead of her on fire and blocking her path. With her route of escape gone Terra was left with no choice but to retaliate.

"Whispershock!" she exclaimed as she unleashed her energy stream.

When Burnerman saw the purple energy dissipate he started to laugh. "AHAHAHAHAHAH how could someone like you be a netsaver you're a complete spaz!"

"You would think that wouldn't you?" Terra questioned as she watched her energy enter Burnerman's body.

"!" He yelled out as her attack took effect. "You're going to pay for that you little brat."

"No she's not." Lan voice replied from behind him. "You're going to learn never to mess with a net saver. Megabuster!"

"That goes for me too! Sonic boom" Chaud called out making his attack. Lan and he had gotten the chief and the others to safety and had come back to help Terra.

"Sorry but my fight isn't with you, it's with her. Firetower!" he exclaimed.

The attack came so suddenly that they were both caught off guard. Soon they found themselves against a wall.

"You know you're pretty good." Burnerman said commending Terra. "But you won't be for long." Then seven darkchips appeared before him. "I was saving these but I was told to take care of you, and that's exactly what I intended to do." He said absorbing them all. "Nothing's going to stand in my way."

"He's absorbing seven darkchips!" Chaud questioned, "I've never seen a darkloid take on so many."

Soon he had gathered all his energy into one attack that he was sure would finish off Terra for good. "Firestorm!" He exclaimed as he focused the attack solely on Terra.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH H!" she cried when the attack slammed into her from every direction. The force of the blast was so strong that it blew her straight through a wall, and Lan and Chaud were left to look on in horror as she remained motionless on the ground.

"Terra!" Lan and Chaud exclaimed together.

Then Lan father's voice came over the intercom.

"Lan, Chaud, you have to do something! Terra's crossfusion is becoming unstable is he attack her without it she'll be done for!"

"We're on it!" they replied.

"I'll get Burnerman's attention. You take care of Terra." Chaud said.

"Right!" Lan replied going off.

"Hey burnout!" Chaud called. When Burnerman turned around Chaud tacked him.

"Terra are you alright?" Lan asked when he reached her but she didn't answer.

"Get off me you brat!" Burnerman said activating his dark aura and throwing Chaud off him and knocking him out in the process. After that he turned his attention back to Terra.

When Lan saw that he was coming he started to shake Terra.

"Come on wake up." He exclaimed.

"Get off of her!" Burnerman yelled as he shot cyberfire toward Lan. Lan was hit but he didn't move, he had to do something and he had to do it fast. He got an idea but wasn't sure how it would turn out.

"DoubleSoul, ProtoSoul, battlechip in, download!" Lan exclaimed.

"Lan we've never done that crossfused before, are you sure?"

"No, but what choice do we have? What we've been doing isn't enough!" Lan shouted back soon being engulfed in a bright light as his uniform changed to that of ProtoSoul Megaman.

"This is incredible." Famous said as they watched the battle from the underground shelter. "I didn't think that double soul could be applied while in crossfusion."

"Well you never know what you can and can't do until you try it." Dr. Hikari replied.

Soon Terra regained consciousness but was confused when she saw that Lan's uniform had changed.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"It's double soul, it happen when two navi's data combines." When he saw that the confusion on Terra's face didn't disappear he continued. "Don't worry I'll explain later. Stay behind me."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Terra replied as she remained where she was.

"This is sure to take care of you." Lan stated as he called up a variable sword. "Sonic Boom!" he exclaimed as he thew the blast Burnerman's way. The sound wave knocked the darkloid off his feet doing a bit of damage but it wasn't enough, Burnerman still got up.

"Hahaha, that's all you've got? I expected more. Flame tower!" The dark navi exclaimed as he called up the attack, it forming under Lan catching him by surprise knocking him away from Terra disorienting him in the process. Burnerman chuckled as he watched Lan flounder before turning his attention back to Terra, activating the fire swords in his hands. "And now it's your turn."

Terra could only look on in fear, she still couldn't move enough to defend herself due to the attack she'd received earlier.

"Goodbye brat." he stated as he prepared to strike her, but just as he was about to make his move a narrow plasma stream pierced his chest dead in the center if his crest. Soon his frame began to shudder. "You..." he growled, "I'll get you for this!" Burnerman exclaimed before he disappear.

"Burnerman logging out."

Terra looked behind her to see Chaud still kneeling with a zeta cannon still encompassing his hand.

"Thank you."

Chaud smirked, "Anytime."

* * *

"I never expected that Nebula would ever make an attack like this." The chief said when everyone had made their way back to the observation deck and was surveying the damage that the battle had caused. "They're getting bolder by the day."

"Hey, at lest something good came out of it," Chaud said, "our newest netsaver was able to show her true colors."

"Some true colors I have." Terra replied. "I ended up being being a damsel in distress."

"Yes maybe," the chief said as he turned his attention to Terra. "This was more than anyone should have to deal with on the first day and I wish I could tell you that things will get easier Terra, but they won't. I know that were asking a lot of you, and I still want you here. But I'm a reasonable man, if you want it back out you're welcome, to no one will think any less of you."

"Are you kidding me?" Terra asked, "Damsel or not I still live for this kind of stuff."

The chief smiled. "I'm glad to hear that, if you really think you can handle Nebula, welcome to the team."

TBC


	3. Fast Foward

Chapter 3

Fast Forward

It had been four months since Terra had teamed up with Chaud and Lan and a lot had happened during that time.

They discovered that the human that had aided the darkloids was Dr. Regal. And to think that they had fallen right into his trap when they had sought his help. Not too soon after that Chaud had lost Protoman to the darkchip's soul of darkness when he was forced to use it when Shademan had endangered their lives. She hadn't ever seen Chaud so lost before. Not that no one really noticed, Chaud had gone on with his life but she noticed his loneliness and so did Lan, burying himself in work hadn't fooled them.

Thankfully, her father, Dr. Hikari, Famous, and many other scientist were able to create a vaccine chip to counteract the effects of the darkchips. Although the chip hadn't worked on Dark Protoman Chaud's fierce determination had come through and they had succeeded in bring Protoman back. All this happened before the climax: Nebula's final attack.

When Dr. Regal attacked Net City for the second time that year and had stolen literally millions of netnavis they knew that something big was going to happen, they just had no idea how big it was going to be. Dr. Regal had managed to create a dimensional area large enough to cover the entire Earth. That's when he began his rampage destroying anything that got in his way. Thankfully his plan wasn't fool-proof. With everyone's help they had been able to take Dr. Regal down, but everyone knew it wasn't over. Dr. Regal hadn't been found so Nebula was sure to make a reappearance, it was just a matter of when. But for now they would enjoy their victory. The chief had even formed a Net Police banquet to celebrate. The date had been set for that night, and Terra had already gotten dressed in the spaghetti strapped dress and ribbon wrapped boots that her mom had picked out for her and was waiting for her father and mother to get ready and leave. As she waited in her room she busied herself by working on a project that she was trying to finish.

"Terra what are you doing?" Whisper asked, as she appeared on the screen of Terra's computer, "Your parents are going to be ready any second." then she took notice of what Terra was working on. "Hey, is it done yet?" she asked excitedly, her eyes glimmering with anticipation.

"I'm working on it." Terra replied with a chuckle as she made the last adjustments, "There, now it's done."

"So, does this mean that you're going to tell your dad about this?" Whisper asked.

"I think you know the answer to that." Terra replied.

"But, you're going to show Lan and Chaud tonight aren't you? That's why you've been working on this all afternoon isn't?"

"Yeah, but that's different." Terra replied, "If I tell them they're not going to try to send me to a school for exceptionally bright children."

"You don't know if your dad will either-or maybe he will." Whisper said changing her opinion when Terra threw her a look.

"Terra we're ready to go the limo's here!" Terra's father called as he came near her door and started to turn the knob.

"Ok, I'm coming." Terra said hastily, turning off her computer and jacking Whisper back into her PET accomplishing everything in time to be at her bedroom door before it was opened.

* * *

When Terra arrived at headquarters she quickly found Lan who was decked out in a tux. Although he looked great she could tell right away that he was extremely uncomfortable.

"Hey," she said when she approached him.

"Oh, hey," he replied, "You look nice," he said giving Terra a look over.

"Thanks" Terra replied, "Where's Chaud? I though that he'd be here by now." She said noticing that he was nowhere nearby.

"He's over there." Lan said pointing deep into the crowd, "he's speaking to his investors."

This was one thing that Terra had yet to get over, how much Chaud had changed over the past seven years. He was so serious all the time. He hardly cracked a joke; and when he did it was usually was used to insult a darkloid. Of course that shouldn't have surprised her one bit, all of this was a result of his father's breeding. But she had a plan. She was going to make Chaud normal if it was the last thing that she did. Her train of thought was soon interrupted though when the chief raised a glass to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone," he addressed, "I would like to thank each and every one of you here tonight. All of you here tonight played a part in bringing an end to Nebula, but there are three young people here tonight that made all of it possible: Lan Hikari, Chaud Blaze, and Terra Javedson. Would you three please step forward?" When they did he continued, "I would like to present you these metals as a commemoration of all your hard work," he said looping them over their necks. "And Chaud, I would like to present this to you." He said while giving him his own Advanced PET II. "Aren't we proud of them everyone?" With that applause erupted from every corner of the room. Soon the music started again and so did the party. But Terra soon found herself board, besides she had something that she wanted to show Lan and Chaud.

"You guys want to get out of here?" she asked.

"Sure," they replied, "sure but where are we going to go?"

"Follow me." When they left the ball room she lead them to the chief's office.

"What are we doing here?" Lan asked.

"I have something I've been working on that I want to show you guys, but I need a high-powered computer and since I didn't exactly bring my laptop with me I need to borrow the chief's desktop." She said taking a card out of her boot and slipping it in the lock and opening the door.

"What if we get caught?" Chaud asked.

"Oh Chaud, for once in your life do something unexpected." Terra said as she entered to room. Turning on the computer she took out a flash drive and ran the program. When Lan and Chaud looked it over they were dumfounded.

"So, what do think?" Terra asked.

"Terra, these are blueprints for another PET, you came up with this yourself?" Chaud asked.

"Yeah, I've been working on it for a while. When Dr. Hikari brought the PET II to life I saw some areas where he could improve." Terra replied.

"Like what?" Chaud asked.

"Well first off I boosted the onboard memory so that the battlechip-gate technology could be incorporated. It'll greatly help us in battling, now we won't ever have to worry about just having five chips on hand. I also found a use for trace data.

"What's trace data?" Lan asked.

"It's data that a navi leaves behind when it's transferred from one PET to another. It's like a digital echo only it has substance." Chaud answered, "But I never thought that there was any use for it."

"Well tell me what crossfusion is." Terra said.

"It's the fusion of a net op and navi, their data and your DNA." Chaud replied.

"Exactly, their data, if we can recombine our navi's with their trace data it would act like a bridge in crossfusion, enabling us to still be synchronized with our navi's even if they were separate from us."

"Are you saying that it's possible that we could battle side by side with our navis in a dimensional area?" Lan asked, his eyes glowing.

"If it works in the real world sure, things always happen a little differently out here than in a computer simulation. And there's one more feature that I think you'll like and it all because I found out why Rush can materialize in the our world."

"Why's that?" Lan asked.

"Well when you told me that he started to appear on the night of a huge thunderstorm I looked into it. It's possible that there's a dense electromagnetic field that Rush can form around him, that's all that a dimensional area is just on a larger scale. If that's true and we could duplicate that then our navi's could appear and crossfusion would be possible without a dimensional area. So if another darkloid decides to copy what Shademan did we'll be ready."

"Dose your dad know anything about this?" Chaud asked.

"Are you kidding? If my dad knew I was capable of this I wouldn't be a netsaver. I'd be behind some desk at Scilab or at some prep school for the extremely bright. I want to work in the field, not behind some desk. Why do you think I kept my mouth shut for so long?"

"But you are going to show this to the chief aren't you?" Chaud asked.

"I don't know-"

"Terra," Chaud interrupted, "you've made some incredible improvement and discoveries, Dr. Hikari revolutionized the PET once, you can do it again."

"I know that," Terra said taking out her flash drive and laying it down on the desk, "but-" then she grew quiet.

"What's wrong?" Chaud asked.

"Did you here that? Someone's coming." Terra replied.

Sure enough when they got quiet they could hear the Chief and Lan's father's voices coming down the hall toward the room.

"We have to get out of here!" Terra exclaimed in a whisper.

"I thought you liked the unexpected." Chaud shot back.

"That didn't mean that I liked getting unexpectedly caught." Terra said back.

"Hey guys," Lan said interrupting the two, "there's a fire escape outside come on." Lan said.

In the next second Terra had grabbed her flash drive (or what she thought was her flash drive) and was out of the window right behind Lan and followed by Chaud, and not a second too soon. Just as they had closed the window from the outside and scrambled to either side of it the chief had opened the door. Within five minuets they were back at the party and no one had missed them.

* * *

"So Dr. Hikari what was it that you wanted to show me?" the chief asked back in his office.

"A new program sir," he replied picking up a flashdrive off the desk and inserting it in the USB slot. When the program came up the chief was taken aback.

"Blueprints for a PET III?" he asked shocked. "The Advanced PET II hasn't even been released to the public yet and it's already been outdated?"

"Sir, this isn't my program," Dr. Hikari said removing the flashdrive, when he did he recognized the handwriting on the backside. "Chief, this is Terra's program."

"Terra, you mean Dr. Javedson's daughter?"

"Yes sir," he said as he reinserted the drive and started the program up again. The more he looked the more he was impressed at her discoveries.

"Is this just an idea list or are theses actual blueprints?" the chief asked.

"No sir, it's actual blueprints, she's thought everything through, worked out all the bugs as far as I can see. It's just the matter of if it will actually work outside a computer simulation."

"If I gave you a crew could you have some of these built by morning?" The chief asked.

"Well yes," Dr. Hikari replied, "But shouldn't we ask Terra's permission first? I mean I know that this isn't copyrighted of anything but I would feel better if we had her consent."

"I know so would I but we're in the middle of a war here. We may be celebrating tonight, but everyone on that ballroom as well as you and I both know that this is all a façade. Until Regal is behind bars we really haven't won, this PET III could just be the edge we need to do that."

"I understand sir." Dr. Hikari replied.

"Then get to work." The chief replied.

* * *

_Somewhere in a darkened place someone is observing Dr. Hikari and the Chief. When he speaks his identity is revealed._

"So the net police are making more progress." It's Dr. Regal. "They may have found a way to upgrade the PET and take back my most useful navi (Dark Protoman) but this is far from over. You haven't destroyed Nebula and I will have my revenge."

The truth of the matter was that the Net Police weren't the only ones uping their game; so was he. The aftermath of his battle with Shadman had born unexpected fruit; the darkloid had actually found a way to materialize in the real world without one of his dimentional areas.

This had been a tantilizing find. It had taken him a while to extract the data from Shademan's remains but he had done it. No Sci-Lab grunt would EVER out think him. He wouldn't always use it though. Dimentional Area's had their advantages. One could trap hostages inside, not to mention making use of viruses. One wouldn't be able to give the ability of spontanious materialzation to a mindless virus, or even to a less than trusted darkloid; he would have to use this newfound power spareingly.

Then again was there truly such a thing as a trustworthy darkloid? Regal chuckled to himself, whoever he gave this ability to he would have to make sure it was a privilage that could be revoked.

But first there were some other things that needed to be set in motion. It was time to see how interesting things will get when the Dr. Jeckel's had Mr. Hydes.

* * *

"Rise and shine!" Whisper's voice rang out the next morning.

"Whisper it's Saturday! I don't have to go to school, and we didn't get home last night until 12, please let me sleep." Terra replied groggily.

" I know, but I just got an e-mail from the Chief, he wants to meet with you at Scilab and to bring Lan and Chaud with you for some reason he can't get in touch with them." When she didn't get up Whisper activated the alarm clock.

"Uhhhhhhhhh!" Terra exclaimed as she hit the snooze alarm.

"Come on sleepyhead, get up!" Whisper said shaking Terra.

Terra's eye's shot open. Suddenly she wasn't sleeply anymore. Her mom was out doing errends like she did every Saturday morning and her dad hadn't come home form the party the night before, plus she was an only child. There was no one in the house that could shake her.

"Whisp?" she said as she _slowly_ turned over. When she did Whisper was standing over her. She wasn't in her PET.

"Yes that's my name don't ware it out." She replied.

"You're-" Terra started.

"Out of the PET?" Whisper finished, "yeah, I noticed, looks like your program works."

"But that's impossible," Terra said rushing to her computer inserting her flash drive. Then her worst fears came to life, this wasn't her drive, she had grabbed someone elses the night before. That meant only one thing. Dr. Hikari and the Chief had found her program. And it worked! That must have been what the chief had wanted to talk to her about.

"So are you going to start getting ready willingly or am I going to have to drag you into the shower." Whisper asked.

All Terra could think was that this couldn't be happening. This had to be a dream. She pinched herself. She didn't wake up. She touched Whisper thinking that her hand would pass through, that she had to be hologram. But that didn't happen. Whisper was really there. This left only one for Terra to do.

Scream.

"!"

TBC


	4. The PET III

Chapter 4

The PET III

As she walked down the sidewalk Terra couldn't help but think how weird all this was. She had quickly showered and gotten dressed, she had also given Whisper a fashion chip so at least not everyone would know what was going on. With out the helmet, boots, and gloves she looked like anyone else; actually she looked like Terra besides their eye color and the way they wore their hair they looked identical and they were getting the looks to prove it. She now had on a pair of jeans and a hooded pea coat to make her fit it; even though she couldn't feel the cold that came with this late January weather.

When they turned the corner they found that they weren't the only ones that were up early. Chaud was coming and he wasn't alone Protoman was with him. Although no one would know that if they didn't know Chaud since the navi look was gone; he had on a thick red and purple jacket and jeans, the only thing that might throw someone off was that his hair was still practically down to his feet now topped with a billed beanie. Not to mention that he still had on his signature shades. And to tell you the truth Chaud looked a little freaked out.

"That's sure to get people talking, it's not even sunny today." Whisper said.

"Well he could always pass off as blind." Terra added. "What about that hair?"

Whisper didn't answer for a few seconds. "I have to admit, looks a little out of place without the helmet and jumpsuit."

"A little? Really?" Terra asked quiety as Chaud was close enough to overhear if she spoke any louder.

"Seams like you decided to tell your father after all." Chaud said when they met gesturing toward Proto.

"Actually no," Terra replied taking the flash drive out of her pocket, "I picked up the wrong drive last night. Dr. Hikari must have seen my program.

"Well at least you know it works." Protoman said.

"Sure, if you like having a heart attack at 7:30 in the morning. What are you guys doing here anyway?" Terra asked.

"I was looking for you actually." Chaud replied. "What are you doing here?"

Before Terra had time to answer they heard Lan give out a short yell.

"Lan are you ok?" Chaud asked to Lan's open window. Soon Lan appeared on the balcony with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Megaman's out of my PET!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, we know genius." Terra replied. "And hurry up and get dressed we have to be at Scilab."

When Lan came out of the house his unnerved look hadn't disappeared and Megaman had a look that mirrored it. If anyone hadn't noticed the resemblance between the two before there was no denying it now. Besides the hair and eye color everything else was the same. Megaman had a blue and yellow coat on with jeans and wore a backward baseball cap; without his helmet Terra saw for the first time that the navi had bangs, bangs that oddly looked exactly like Dr. Hikari's. Terra couldn't help but think how they looked so much alike. Like brothers, twins even. As they stared to walk to Scilab she decided to say something about it but Chaud beat her to it.

"Have you guy's ever noticed how much you two look alike?"

Lan and Mega turned to face one another and after a quick glance turned away. Terra thought that that was odd but noticed that both Mega and Lan wore a look that said that they had noticed but didn't want to address the fact. So instead of questioning them further she decided to change the subject.

"So what did you let out that yelp for?" she asked.

* * *

_Flashback…_

_Lan was walking down an empty hall he didn't know where he was or why he was there but he was being drawn to a certain place. When he arrived at what felt like his destination he knew exactly where he was. Room 229. The room where his brother had died. He tried to walk away but the invisible force that had led him there drew him inside. When he looked around he found the room empty he turned around and was almost to the door when he heard his name being called._

"_Lan," as small voice called._

_Lan slowly turned around and was faced with a small navy haired green-eyed child._

"_Lan, find me." The child stated._

"_No this isn't possible," Lan said backing away, "you died eight years ago." He turned to leave but only was faced with the child once more._

"_Lan, find me." _

_Lan ran around the child and bolted for the door. He didn't stop running until he was back at home. Once there he went straight to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, and tried to regulate his breathing. Once he was calm he looked up at his reflection in the mirror only to see someone behind him. It was the child from the hospital, only it was no longer a child but a teenager. A teenager that looked strangely like his navi._

"_Lan, find me." The figure stated, the voice bearing a striking resemblance to Megaman's._

"_Mega?" Lan asked but before the figure could reply it seemed to phase out of existence._

"_Lan, find me." Was all he heard._

"_Lan." _

_Lan heard his name being called._

"_Lan. Come on, Lan wake up."_

_The next thing Lan felt was himself being shaken by someone, and he was slowly being pulled to reality._

"_Uhh," Lan groaned as he tried to hang on to sleep._

"_Lan get up!" The voice said again, and Lan felt himself being shook again; then he felt himself being shoved out of the bed._

"_AHHH." He yelped as he hit the floor. "Hub!" Lan exclaimed still half asleep as he got off the floor only paying attention to a pair of green eyes; then he noticed that it was Mega who had an equal amount of surprise on his face. "How are you…" Lan started. The next thing he heard was Chaud's voice._

"_Lan are you ok?" he asked._

_Lan went out to the balcony and found that both Lan and Terra were on the sidewalk in front of his house; and they weren't alone Protoman and Whisper were with them._

"_Megaman's out of my PET." He said._

"_Yeah, we know genius." Terra said gesturing to the two navis, "hurry up and get dresses we have to be at Scilab._

"_K," Lan said turning to go back into his room, when he did Mega had a concerned look on his face._

"_Lan why did you call me Hub? Your brother died eight years ago." Mega asked. "Is it because I look like him?_

"_I don't know." Lan said getting dressed. "I was half asleep when I said it and I had just had this really weird dream about him, just drop it ok?" Lan asked leaving Mega no choice as he waked past him grabbing his bandanna and leaving the room._

_End flashback…_

* * *

"Let's just say I had a rude awaking." Lan replied, although looking back he couldn't help but wonder if his subconscious was trying to tell him something. He never felt that Hub as really gone and he was having these dreams pretty regularly for the last couple of years. But what did that have to do with Mega? "So I guess you decided to tell your father after all." Lan said motioning to Mega with his eyes.

"No, not really, I left my flash drive at the party last night in the Chief's office. Your dad must have found it.

When they arrived a Scilab Terra didn't go in.

"What's wrong?" Megaman asked.

"I don't want to go in there." Terra replied.

"But everyone'll be proud of you won't they?" Lan asked.

"I know, but it's not your dad or the chief or even Famous that I'm worried about, it's my dad. I know that he's upset that I didn't tell him about this." Terra replied.

"If there's one thing I know is you can't run away from your problems or even avoid them." Chaud said taking Terra's hand and leading her in the building. When he did the chief was there to meet them.

"Terra, I've been expecting you." He said ushering her into the office that he had set up within Scilab. "I've been very proud of many netsavers over the years, but I've never been prouder than I have with you. You've made years worth of progress on the PET. You should be very proud."

"Thank you." Terra replied. When she saw that that was all that the chief wanted to say she relaxed. "I just wish that everyone would feel that way."

"What do you mean?" the chief asked.

"Up till now my dad just thought that I was a normal slightly gifted straight A student. I never let on that I was capable of this. Now he knows and I'm sure he's upset."

'Well I can understand why you kept it from your father."

"You can?"

"Oh course, your father's brilliant dear but he can go a little overboard. But I'm sure if you tell him how you feel he'll understand." The chief replied.

"Thanks." Terra said responding the reassuring statement, "So where to next?"

"I think Dr. Hikari wants to see you now."

When she turned to leave the chief called her back.

"Oh, before you go, I think that you'll need these." He said handing her three PET's, her PET.

Terra hadn't felt more pride than right now. She never thought that her PET would ever be more than a simulation. And here it was. When she came out everyone ran to meet her.

"What did he want?" Chaud asked.

"Oh, he wanted to congratulate me," Terra replied, "and give me these." She said handing Chaud and Lan their new PET.

"Wow, these are so cool." Lan remarked.

The third generation PET was sleeker and more stylish than the other two models. For one thing they weren't as bulky and the screen took up most of the PET. The buttons that use to be on the front were now on the side.

"So where to now?" Whisper asked.

"Dr. Hikari's lab." Terra replied. "They're really eager to give these things a test drive.

When they arrived the lab was full of life. There were people everywhere.

"Looks like the new PET caused quite a stir." Protoman remarked.

"Do you see my dad anywhere?" Terra said looking at the many people in the room.

"No, I don't see him." Chaud replied.

"I'm going to try to find him." Terra said walking off but she was soon intercepted by Dr. Hikari and Famous.

"Terra, I'm glad that you're finally here." Dr. Hikari said coming up behind her.

"So did you like your wake up call this morning?" Famous asked.

"Well it was interesting." Terra said as they walked back to where Lan and Chaud were waiting.

"Interesting? It was more like _The Twilight Zone_ worthy" Lan said when he overheard Terra.

"Well, all I can say is that it was quite unexpected." Chaud answered.

Terra raised her eyebrow at this. With a reaction like that she would have killed to see what Chaud's reaction had been that morning.

"Glad you enjoyed it, that was a feature of the PET III wasn't sure would work but it did. Push this button." He said motioning to one on the top left hand side. When they did their navis disappeared and reappeared back on the PET screen.

"So that's what that buttons for." Lan said.

"Yes, I know you guys probably want to see how far these thing can go. Plus the chief wants us to get a move on so we should get to that. You guys ready?" he asked.

"Of course." They all replied.

"The only thing we have left to test is the double crossfusion. Since the battlechip gate technology and the trace data program has been incorporated the crossfusion should be much stronger. Now both the navi and the op will have access to all the battlechips in the PET's memory. This function is the closest of kin to a solo navi, this program will instantly unlock during double crossfusion or if the operator is unavailable or injured. It will also mental link between you and your navi. You'll be able to hear each others thoughts from time to time. I've also written in the PET's programming that if the navi sustains a certain amount of damage that it will instantly jack out and go back to the original form of crossfusion."

"That'll stop any unnecessary deletions?" Terra asked.

"Exactly." Dr. Hikari replied.

"Not only that, but now we can stay in a battle longer of needed." Chaud mentioned.

"Well I know I want to test this out." Lan said already leaving the observation deck.

Once everyone was in their places Dr. Hikari powered up the dimensional area.

"Ok, I want you three to start with the standard form of crossfusion."

"What ever you say dad, syncrochip in, download, begin crossfusion now." Terra and Chaud followed suite.

Famous overlooked the power levels. "Ok, everything looks normal, lets take things up a notch." He said.

"Ok, now when I give the signal I want you to jack in Megaman, Protoman and Whiper into the dimensional area. Ready? Now!"

"Ok, lets see with this thing can do. Jack in, Protoman, power up"

"Right behind you Chaud, jack in, Whisper, power up!"

"And don't forget about us, jack in, Megaman, power up."

When the trigger word was said their navi's data began to stream from their emblems and with in seconds they were once again face to face with their navis.

Dr. Hikari looked over the power levels this time.

"Everything looks good the crossfusion is still holding. Ok," he said over the intercom, "I'm going to start sending in viruses. We'll see if the PET can hold up to the battlechip gate technology."

Soon viruses stated to appear everywhere.

"Megabuster." Lan and Megaman said starting to delete viruses left and right.

"Bamboo sword, battlechip in" Terra said slashing a spiky virus in half.

"Fire Sword" Whisper said incinerating a host of viruses.

"Sonic boom!" Chaud and Protoman exclaimed together, taking care of the rest of the viruses.

"This is amazing," Famous said looking over the power levels again, "the power levels are higher now then they've ever have been. Chaud, Protoman, Terra and Whisper are closer to being fully synchronized then they ever have before. And Lan's full synchronization is still holding.

* * *

"Oh, I'm glad that's over." Terra said as she collapsed on the floor. They had tested the PET for four hours going over every possible known situation they could face in a battle and after that they had received the assignment to download every battlechip they owned. "I think I have arthritis."

"I have never downloaded so many battlechips in my life." Chaud said.

"I don't think I can move my fingers." Terra said.

"Are you kidding me? I don't think I can move any muscle in my body.

Then all their PET's went off and naturally Chaud reached for his.

"Don't answer it." Both Lan and Terra said together.

"It's probably important." Chaud replied.

"Or they could be asking us to test something." Lan replied.

"Chaud it's Famous, it sounds like it's urgent." Protoman said when Chaud still hadn't answered. Chaud then decided that it would be best to answer.

"Hey Famous what's the problem?" he asked.

"Viruses are attacking at the bank. They already logged out the security navis. We need you three to take care of them.

"Don't worry Mr. Famous we're on it." Chaud said getting off the floor followed by Terra. Lan still didn't move.

"Come on Lan get up." Terra said almost begging, "The faster we take care of this the faster we can get back home and take a nap."

"There is no way you're getting me off of this floor." Lan replied.

"Lan get off the floor." Mega said,

"Fat ch-!" Lan exclaimed when someone jerked him up. When he was back on his feet he was face to face with Mega.

"You forgot what happened this morning didn't you?" Mega asked.

"Yeah," Lan replied begrudgingly remembering how Mega had pushed him out the bed that morning to wake him up as he headed to the door. He was going to have to find a way so he could lock Mega out of that program.

* * *

When they arrived at the bank everything was haywire. The lights were blinking the ATM machines were spitting out money and the automatic doors continued to open and close.

"Ok, lets take care of this, jack in Protoman, power up!"

"Yeah. Jack in Megaman power up!"

"I'm right behind you guys, jack in Whisper power up!"

When the navis jacked in the viruses didn't attack them. Instead they stopped what they were doing and left.

"K, I wasn't expecting that." Whisper said when the viruses left.

"Look," Protoman said when the smoke cleared. The viruses had left behind a message etched in the bank's firewall. The message read:

"NEBULA LIVES"

TBC


	5. Your Worst Fear

Chapter 5

Your Worst Fear

"This was my worst fear," said the chief. When the gang had left the bank they went directly to the net police headquarters to relate what they saw. "We should have known when Dr. Regal disappeared that this wasn't over. That's why I pushed for the PET III to be built so quickly."

"I wonder what that message meant." Lan said.

"Well obviously it meant just what it said. Nebula's still out there, it may have taken a major hit but it's survived." Chaud replied.

"And that Dr. Regal'll be looking for a little revenge. He can't be happy that his rampage was stopped by teenagers." Terra replied.

"And now that we know that Regal was affected by Duo and that he has the power to resurrect deleted darkloids from the cyber graveyard, he's more of a threat now than ever." Dr. Hikari mentioned.

"Well need to stay on our toes," Famous said, "if Regal stages any kind of attack no doubt it'll be aimed directly at us. He knows that he'll need us out-of-the-way of he'll want to take over any world, cyber or human."

"And it wouldn't hurt if the three of you keep close ties for the time being, if Regal is going after anyone most likely it'll be you three." Manuela remarked.

"Don't worry about a thing Manuela, we'll watch each other's back." Lan replied wrapping his arms around Chaud and Terra's shoulder pulling them together causing them to roll their eyes.

* * *

Over the next couple of weeks things we pretty quite, too quite actually, it was like the calm before the storm and everyone was on their toes.

* * *

"What are you working on?" Terra asked as she and Lan walked into Chaud's office. Chaud who was looking intently at his laptop hadn't noticed them until Terra had spoken. The three had taken Manuela's advice and were hanging out more than they usually did. At least with Chaud, Lan and Terra pretty much hung out together now anyway, not that they considered staying at Chaud's office for three hours as 'hanging out'. But if Manuela suggested something you did it because it probably came directly form the chief more or less.

"I was looking over the computer log from some of our battles. I had a felling that we missed something."

"Did you find anything?" Terra asked.

"I think so, remember that day when the darkloids tried to destroy Control X? I know that Megaman is more powerful in doublesoul but that still doesn't explain why he was able to delete the navi's with one clean shot. You two always has to ware them down." Chaud said directing the conversation to Lan and Megaman.

"Yeah I wondered that too." Megaman said, "of course at the time I was grateful. I wasn't going to look a gift horse on the mouth. But did you find a reason?"

"I think we did," Protoman replied, as he pulled up a couple or graph on the computer. "These graphs show the power levels of the darkloids before and after their deletion. Notice the difference?" he asked.

"Hey, they're way lower after Regal brought them back." Lan remarked as he looked over the graphs.

"Yeah, but we haven't heard a peep out of Regal since his rampage. This may prove that Regal didn't have his act totally together then, but I'm pretty sure that if we met up with them, again that the darkloids would be as strong, or stronger than they were before." Terra said.

"You're probably right." Chaud replied closing his laptop. I guess it's a good thing that we have the PET III on our side then. And just so you know I was trying to look in the bright side for once."

"Yes, I know and I'll start to acknowledge that when you loosen up. Your dad may have bread you to be a mini corporate tycoon, but keep in mind that you are 14. You don't have much time left to act like a kid, but you do have the rest of your life to be a business man." Terra replied.

"Well you can start to acknowledge now. Since there's nothing much we can do about Regal until he makes a move we might as well do something to keep ourselves occupied." Chaud said as he tossed a flyer to her and Lan. Since Terra had moved to Dentech she always teased him that he was too serious. It hadn't bothered him when it came from someone else but since it had stated coming from her…

"An underground netbattling tournament? Cool!" Lan exclaimed, as he looked the flyer over.

"Wow I'm impressed, this is defiantly an improvement. But are you sure you want to do this Chaud, you might get you designer clothes dirty " Terra said joking with her friend, then reading what the flyer said. "Underground netbattling tournament in warehouse district. All navi types excepted. From 5pm-8pm, only for teens ages 13-18. Must bring identification card for age verification. Why are the ages restricted?" Terra asked handing the flyer back to Chaud.

"I think because no one can be held liable for any type of injury once your over the age of 13 if it happens in a place that doesn't have insurance coverage." Megaman mentioned.

"Nice." Terra replied sarcastically. "Well this thing starts at five, that's in two hours we better hurry up and get down there, we still have to sign up and everything, not to mention check out the competition." Terra said looking over at Lan and noticing that he was searching all of his pockets. "You don't have your ID card with you do you?" she asked.

"No." Lan replied, "I must have left it somewhere, Chaud you don't mind if we swing by Scilab first do you? My dad always keeps a spare."

"No that shouldn't be a problem, Scilab is on the way to the warehouse district anyway. I don't see why we can't stop. Besides since the rare metal is being kept there before it's moved again it wouldn't hurt that we had a look at the firewalls and make sure that there hasn't been any attempted hacking."

"You always have to find some way to work even when you're fixing to play don't you Chaud?" Terra asked as they left the building.

* * *

"Hey," Chaud said when they arrived at Scilab, "I should be able to finish the search faster if I can have Megaman and Whisper's help."

"Ok." Terra and Lan replied as they jacked their navi's into Chaud's PET.

Mega had half a mind to object to this. He wasn't sure it was the best idea for Lan to be looking through his fathers' files, but he decided against it. If he did it might lead to questions he wasn't sure he should answer.

When they split up Chaud went to the main office taking Protoman, Megaman and Whisper with him and Lan and Terra headed to Dr. Hikari's office.

"Where is everyone? This place is like a ghost town." Terra said as they walked the empty halls.

"My dad said something about them starting a project in Sharro. Since the darkloids attacked they're beefing up security at the mine. "Oh great." Lan said. He and Terra had made it to his dad's office and he was now yanking on the file cabinet drawer finding it locked.

"You'll never learn will you?" Terra asked pulling a bobbing pin out of her hair and picking the lock.

"Ok, you want to help me with this?" Lan asked as Terra pulled open the drawer and found a sea of papers. "My dad may be a brilliant scientist but he has to be the most unorganized person I know."

"Most unorganized?" Terra asked, "You aren't exactly Mary Poppins Lan."

"Just help me." Lan replied handing her a pile of papers.

"Ok, we have, report card, report card, doctor bill, hospital bill, birth certificate, birth certificate, death certificate" Terra was about to move on to the next paper when the word 'death' registered in her mind and she flipped back to take a look at the three documents; what she saw took her by surprise. "Lan I didn't know you had a twin."

Lan was caught off guard by the statement, his brother wasn't someone he talked about often, but he quickly recovered. "Not many people do. He died when we were six, he had HBD, he struggled with it for months but it finally won." Lan replied trying to hide the pain of the memories by pretending to be absorbed in searching for his ID card.

"Lan, I'm so sorry, me and my big mouth, I shouldn't have even asked you that."

"No it's ok." Lan replied. "I think about him all the time anyway."

Terra looked at the birth certificate with a sad smile and began to read what it said:

Name: Hub Hikari.

Hair: Navy.

Eyes: Green.

Birth: Multiple

Order: First

Birthmark: Triangular mark on forearm

It was then that something hit her. I couldn't be could it? If it was true...

"Lan?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"Was Megaman made in your brothers image or was that just a coincidence?" Terra asked.

"I don't know, I guess, I mean the day that I got Megaman that was the first thing that I thought about. I asked my dad about it and he just shrugged me off and changed the subject. You know it's funny though, Megaman has almost the same personality that Hub did. Hub always bossed me around in that big brother way you know, even when he was sick. Not to mention that Megaman and Hub look a lot alike." Lan said pulling out an old photo of his brother and him out of a file. Terra caught her breath when she saw the uncanny resemblance between the two.

"Alike?" Terra asked. "Lan, they look exactly alike. Eerily alike. You don't think that there's any chance-" she started.

Lan saw where she was going and quickly interjected. "What, that Megaman is really my brother and that my dad somehow managed to bring him back from the dead and made him into my netnavi? There's no way, believe me I've thought about it and you couldn't even think of all the times I've wanted it to be true but there's just no way." Lan said, totally ignoring the dream that he had had just had a few days before. Hey I found it." He said when he pulled out his ID card.

"Lan if you don't feel like going anymore it ok. I'd understand and I'm pretty sure Chaud would too."

"Are you kidding me?" Lan asked turning to face his friend. "Besides curry a good netbattle is just the thing to cheer me up."

"Ok then," Terra, said she stuffed all the files back into the cabinet. "I guess we can get out of here."

They were just at the door when it suddenly shut and the room was filled with color.

"What was that?" Lan asked.

"I'm pretty sure I can guess." Terra replied.

"Guys, we have a problem!" Chaud exclaimed as a web cam pop-up appeared on Dr. Hikari's computer.

"Chaud's what's going on?" Lan asked.

"Three darkloids just came through the firewall, they're after the metal." Chaud relied.

"How did they get through the firewall with out setting off the alarm?" Terra asked.

"They had the over ride code." Megaman replied as he and Whisper returned to their PET's

"The only reason Megaman and I picked them up on our search was because they breached the security system that is protecting the metal. The alarm goes off even if you have the password and it only deactivates if someone gives you clearance. If that didn't happen we wouldn't have even known they were here." Whisper replied.

"How could that be possible?" Lan asked.

"I don't know, but we need to crossfuse and get to that underground vault where the metal is being kept. The more we stand around and talk the more time they have to get the metal. We have Nebula right where we want them. Weak. But if they get more metal they can make more darkchips and everything will just start all over again." Chaud said.

"Don't worry we'll see you in a second." Lan said as Chaud ended the transmission. This was just great, for the first time in almost a year he was going to a netbattling tournament and the darkloids had to ruin it. He felt like he was a walking Murphy's Law. When he went to the door he found it locked. "Great. It's locked, Megaman see if you can open it, jack in Megaman power up." He said jacking Megaman into the lock.

"Lan this is a lost cause," Mega said as he examined the control system. "The darkloids have over ridden the system and created a new passwords for all of Scilab's security systems. They've totally locked us out."

"Well lets see how two inches of wood handles a m-cannon, syncrochip in download, begin crossfusion now! M-cannon battlechip in download", he exclaimed as he fired and blew out the door. "Come on," he said as he grabbed Terra who had just crossfused, they were heading down the hall to the vault when they heard Chaud.

"Wait up!" he called as he came up behind them. Once there they continued.

"We'll have to take the stairs." Terra said as she ran. "If the darkloids have control over all the systems the elevators are useless."

"You're right," Chaud agreed "They'll most likely trap us if we tried to use one."

After they had run down about three flights of stairs Lan spoke up.

"The vault is just down this hall." Lan said as he opened the door that led further underground, when they reached it Chaud barked an order.

"When I blow the door be ready for anything." He said.

"Already on it." Lan and Terra replied together default weapons already drawn.

When the door blew they discovered the room was full of viruses. They were about to attack when Protoman stopped them.

"Stop." Protoman said.

"Protoman what is it?" Chaud asked.

"I just conducted a search, these viruses aren't taking the metal. They're only a smoke screen. The darkloids are doing all the work. They're right behind them."

"We still need to get past them though." Lan said.

"And I've got that covered." Chaud replied. "Salamander battlechip in," he said deleting enough viruses to leave a clear path for them to get through.

When they reached the other side though someone was waiting for them and they were greeted with one plasma blast each that knocked them to the ground. With the smoke still thick in the air they couldn't see a thing, even Terra's shades weren't helping, but they could hear. And what they heard was a laugh that was freakishly familiar. Dark Protoman's laugh.

"That's not me." Protoman replied from his half of the crossfusion when Lan and Terra looked Chaud's way.

When the smoke cleared they saw their assailants and came face to face with their own…

Navi's?

TBC


	6. Resurrection

Chapter 6

Resurrection

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" the cackling continued, not only from Dark Protoman but from all three navis. Then another voice joined the group, that of Dr. Regal. It filled the entire room and seemed to have no point of origin.

"You really didn't think that this was over did you? Nebula lives on my young netsavers and it's stronger now than ever. Now my dark minions destroy them."

"Yes master." The navis replied drawing swords and charging their counter parts forcing the trio to split.

"So, it seems that Regal still has some surprises up his sleeve I thought you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks." Terra said as she drew her sword just in time to deflect the dark doppleganger's attack.

The Whisper clone wasn't playing around as she viciously brought on her attack. "Dr. Regal's genius should never be underestimated, it seems that I haven't introduced myself though," the navi said, "the name's Dark Whisper." She said as she tried to catch Terra of guard and deliver a blow but Terra easily sidestepped her.

"Dark Whisper? How generic." Terra replied, when she saw Dark Whisper's face fault she didn't wait another second for an opening. "Geyser battlechip in" she cried as her attack threw Dark Whisper across the room.

"You're going to pay for that." She said as she pushed her waterlogged hair out of her eyes.

"Bring it on." Terra replied.

* * *

"Who are you?" Lan asked as he dodged attack after attack from the navi that was battling him.

"Name's Dark Megaman," he replied, "dark megabuster!"

"Wow, that's original." Lan replied curtly. This only led to another attack headed his way that came frighteningly close, and Lan only managed to miss it by a hair this time. As hard as he tried to keep his mind on the battle at hand, he couldn't. All he could think about was his brother. He had told Terra that he thought about him all the time, and he did, but lately Hub had been forgotten about, and that made Lan feel guilty. I mean how could you just forget about your twin brother? Megaman sensed Lan's mental battle and decided to speak up before he got himself hurt.

"Lan I think we need to switch for defense to offense." He said.

"I think you're right." Lan replied shaking his mind clear, "widesword battlechip in." when he attacked the darkloid brought up one to match. The two were in dead lock and they weren't going anywhere.

* * *

By now Chaud was facing problems of his own. He thought that he had gotten over the memories of Dark Protoman and even though he wasn't facing his navi in battle this time it still brought all those memories flooding back.

"You're a weakling you know that?" Dark Protoman stated as he grabbed Chaud by the wrists and slammed him against the wall.

Chaud felt his anger against Regal flooding back. "I've defeated you once. I can do it again." He said as he pulled his legs together and slammed them into Dark Protoman's stomach causing him to let him go. "Sonic boom!" he exclaimed as he delivered another attack to the enemy, one that blasted him point blank in the chest.

"Oh, that moves going to cost you." Dark Protoman replied as he erected himself reveling that the attack hadn't left a scratch. "AAAHHHHHHRRRRRRRHHHHHH" he roared as he started another attack.

* * *

As Lan continually clashed his sword with the darkloid he started to become bored, he was tired of being in gridlock.

"AAAARRRRRRRR, steal toe battlechip in." he yelled as he kicked his navi's darkened double and he vaulted across the room. "Guy's this is getting us nowhere," he called to his friends, "we need to call in reinforcements!"

"Couldn't agree with you more." Terra replied as she and Chaud mirrored Lan's motion getting the darkloids off their backs.

"Jack in, Megaman, Whisper, Protoman, power up!" the three netsavers said as their voices overlapped.

When their navis appeared the darkloids just laughed.

"Wow, looks like you the netsavers have a new trick up your sleeve. It's just too bad they're not the only ones who've upgraded." Dark Whisper said as she and her partners seemed to split and make copies of themselves.

"They can do that?" Lan asked dumbfounded.

"Oh, didn't Dr. Regal mention? We can do that." The replicated Dark Whisper said as she shot toward Whisper and her team following suit leaving Lan Chaud and Terra to battle the previous set.

* * *

"You traitor!" Dark Protoman exclaimed as he lunged at Protoman, "how could you have turned your back on Nebula?"

"I was never a part of Nebula, I had no control, or opinion when I was under the dark chips influence." Protoman replied as he dodged the attack.

"But you never forgot their power and yet you didn't come back. You turned your back on Nebula. No one ever walks out on Regal, it will be my pleasure to delete you." Dark Protoman stated as he made another attack. "Laser blast"

* * *

Soon though everyone whether on the side of justice or the side of evil had to notice that they were getting nowhere, they were to evenly matched. This only encouraged the darkloids to do what they did best. Fight dirty.

* * *

_'I think it's time I changed tactics.'_ Dark Whisper thought as Terra came at her. When Terra came close enough she elbowed her in the stomach and them grabbed her hair and slung her like a lasso. Terra, who wasn't expecting this form of attack had no way to counteract and she went flying across the room…

"Fire tower battlechip in!" Lan exclaimed, and just as he was about to slam his hand into the ground he felt a weight push against him and the next thing he knew was that he was on the floor. Dark Whisper had purposely thrown Terra into him.

"Now that is sad." She said as she stared to two teens down. "And as much as I would like to I honestly I don't have the time to dwell on you incompetence. I have a mission to carry out," she looked out of the corner of her eye and zeroed in on her next target. "Perfect," she whispered, "Z cannon!" she yelled as she turned sharply and fired in the opposite direction.

Terra and Lan followed the shots trajectory, when they both noticed who the shot had been aimed at they yelled "Megaman lookout!" But it was too late; the blast hit him head on and he was instantly thrown to the ground.

"Well this must be my fortunate day." The Dark Megaman commented that Mega had been battling only seconds before as he towered over the injured navi. During his battle with him he had found that Regal was right; he really was a threat to his operation. But seeing him doubled over on the floor he seemed just like anyone else: weak, worthless and totally not worth his time. Picking him up effortlessly of the floor he asked. "Any last words?" as he held Mega in one hand and raised his megabuster with the other.

Mega peered behind his attacker "Yeah," he replied as well as he could with Dark Megaman's hand clamped around his throat. "Duck." He had looked over the darkloids shoulder and noticed that Lan had his ScopeBlaster aimed and ready to fire.

"Lead shot!" he exclaimed as the hot plasma cut through the air and met its target causing the darkloid to fly back and release Mega who dropped to the floor.

"And as for you…" Terra started when she turned her attention back to Dark Whisper who had watched the scene with absolute glee.

"Mega are you ok?" Lan asked as he ran over to his friend.

"Yeah, I'm ok." He replied shortly trying to get up, but when he put pressure on his arm to stand up it gave out from under him sending him back to the ground.

"No you're not, your hurt, let me look at that." Lan said taking a hold of Mega's right arm. He tried to struggle free but Lan's grip was like a vise and he wouldn't let go.

"Lan I'm fine." Mega said, trying in vain to pull himself free from Lan's grip, but it was a lost cause. Lan was determined not to let go.

"No, you're not." Lan repeated. Taking a closer look he noticed that the blast had burned the top layer of data off reveling the skin that always remained hidden underneath the body suit. The burn went deep and was causing some of Mega's data to break up. But that wasn't what Lan noticed, he saw something else.

A mark…

A dark triangular mark on Mega's forearm…

One that eerily matched…

His brothers birthmark...

Lan was paralyzed. "Here," he said almost robotically as he handed Mega a HP recovery chip. Mega took it and within seconds his arm was healed, taking with it any evidence that Mega was really some else.

"Hey," Mega said putting his hands on Lan's shoulder and looking him in the eye bringing him back for a second, "We have work to do right? We can't let those darkloids get their hands on that metal now can we?"

"No." Lan replied, but as soon as Mega turned and left Lan slipped back into the past.

When Mega had looked him straight in the eye he thought that he had seen a familiar spark in his eyes, something that he hadn't seen in Mega before, a spark that belonged to someone else…

Flashback…

"_Ok." Mrs. Hikari said as she rushed around the house finally finding her keys. "I am so sorry I have to leave early but your father's convention was rescheduled. The baby-sitter will be here in half an hour and I trust that you can be left alone until then?" she asked addressing her two 5-year-old twin sons. Besides their hair and their eye color the two were identical._

"_Of course you can trust us mom, what kind of trouble can we get into anyway?" Lan asked._

"_I don't know but you usually find something." His mother replied eyeing her sons in worry. Not for them but for the baby-sitter._

"_Don't worry mom I'll keep him out of trouble." Lan's brother, Hub, replied his green eyes full of innocence. "We'll be nothing but **sweet** to our baby-sitter."_

"_I hope so." His mother replied ruffling his blue-black hair. "Ok, I'll see tonight." She said as she kissed both boys on the forehead and headed out the door. When she left both boys ran to the window and watched their mother drive off down the street. When he were sure that she was gone Hub turned to his brother._

"_Come on we have work to do." He said as his jade eyes glowing with a certain mischievous and determined spark._

_Half an hour later both boys were back in the room that they shared with each other._

"_Is she coming yet?" Hub asked, busy with the project that he was working on. He was filling up two water guns, only not with water, he was filling them with chocolate pudding._

"_No, I don't see her." Lan replied as he leaned as far over the balcony railing as it would let him._

"_You guys are nothing but trouble." A voice stated as someone else entered to room._

"_Maylu what are you doing here?" Hub asked the girl as she walked up to him._

"_I got bored at my house so I thought that I would see what you were up to. What are you doing? Preparing to torture your baby-sitter again?" the red haired girl asked._

"_Exactly." The two boys replied._

_Lan once again glanced down the street and noticed that this time the baby-sitter was headed toward their house. "Hey, here she comes!" he exclaimed._

"_Right on schedule" Hub replied handing Lan a water gun. "You ready?" he asked._

"_As always." He replied._

_Even thought Maylu knew that the two bays were nothing but trouble she couldn't help but join the two to see how that prank would play out. There was just something about them that attracted you. Something that made life fun._

"_Ok, here she comes 3…2…1…" Hub said as he stared the count down and watched as the girl come closer and closer to the front door. "Now!" he yelled as he squeezed the trigger on the water gun and Lan following suit._

"_AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the girl screamed as she was covered from head to toe in chocolate. She looked up to see who had attacked her, like it was a surprise anyway, both Hub and Lan were looking at her, their eyes sparkling with absolute glee. This was the last straw, she had had enough. "That's it I quit! I can't put up with you little monsters any more!" She exclaimed as she wiped the chocolate out of her eyes glaring at the three children that were beside themselves with laughter and turning heel to head home and take a shower._

"_You guys are horrible." Maylu managed to say while still giggling._

"_And we always will be." Hub replied._

_End flashback…_

But the prank filled days were short-lived. Three months after that Hub had gotten sick and was diagnosed with HBD and six months later he died.

_Flashback…_

_Lan lay awake in his bed as he looked across the room at the empty bed his brother should be in. He knew in heart that he was never going to come home. He had been sick so long and he hadn't gotten any better. As much as his parents tried to convince him otherwise he knew he was going to die. And it was going to happen soon, he could feel it. It was like a piece of himself was slipping away; disappearing. He opened his door to make sure his parents were asleep. When he heard his father snoring he knew the coast was clear. Going back into his room he opened the French doors that led to the balcony and slid down the drain pipe. When he made it to the hospital he slipped past the nurses' station and went to his brother's room. When he saw him he could hardly recognize him. The HBD had reduced his lively twin into a pale and weak stranger. He pulled up a chair and sat down by him. After a few minuets Hub woke up._

"_Hey," he said._

"_Hey yourself." Lan replied._

_Hub gave him a weak smile, "You still can't make a joke, you know that right?"_

"_Well I have to learn from the master first." _

"_Humph, I wish I could stick around to teach you."_

"_What do you mean by that?" Lan asked._

"_Lan, there's no use in us trying to avoid the truth. I'm ganna die. I can feel it. And I know you can feel it too. There's no reason that you'd sneak out of the house after midnight if you didn't."_

"_Hub, I don't want you to leave me." Lan said with tears beginning to stream down his cheeks._

"_I don't either." Hub replied, "But don't worry we'll see each other again." _

_Lan was fixing to ask what he meant by that when he noticed something slightly sticking out from underneath Hub's hair. "What's that?" he asked when he pushed his brother's hair back reveling a small device that was attached to his temple._

"_I don't know really, it's something that dad gave me." Hub replied. When Lan looked at him he could see that he was really tired._

"_It's ok you can you go to sleep. I'll be right here." To weak to make a reply Hub closed is eyes and drifted off. Lan also soon found that his eyes were heavy and it wasn't long that before he fell asleep as well. Lan didn't know how long he had been asleep, but he was suddenly awakened by a sickening sound._

"..._"_

"_Hub." Lan managed to choke out before the nurses came in and removed him from the room; tears streaming down his face._

_End flashback… _

Lan never thought that he could be whole again after that, it was like part of him was missing. Then Megaman had come along and he quickly filled that void, but as Lan looked back he wondered: could there have been an underlining reason as to why he had done that so easily?

_'Don't worry we'll see each other again.' 'We have work to do.'_ Hub and Mega's words echoed in Lan's mind.

"Hub?" Lan whispered to himself; understanding for the first time what his brother's last words had meant and putting together the mystery that had always surrounded his navi. Something that he should have figured out a long time ago.

* * *

"What are they doing?" one of the two Dark Megamen asked commenting on the odd exchange between operator and navi.

"I don't know," the other replied as he watched Mega leave and Lan stay stock still like he was frozen place, "but in a second it won't matter." He said as he brought up his buster. "Chargeshot!" he said as he aimed and fired.

* * *

Hearing the shot being fired Lan was pulled out of his daydream. The plasma passed right by him, coming so close that he could feel it's heat, when it passed he noticed where it was headed and without thinking he yelled…

"**_Hub_** look out!"

Mega turned sharply around and locked eyes with Lan for a split second, this left him no time to dodge the coming attack and before long he was looking into its fiery depths…

"Megaman logging out." The flat computer voice stated.

Lan felt anger bubbling up inside him. It was like he had lost his brother all over again.

"Scopeblaster, stepcross, battlechips in." he called as he swiftly appeared before the two Dark Megamen and pinned them down with the gun. But since he was acting on blind rage and it was two against one he was quickly overpowered and the two Megamen soon had him pinned.

"You net savers are so dumb you know that? You never see the big picture before it's to late." they said together, "This was all a distraction."

That's when Lan noticed for the first time that menture viruses were busy at work collecting the refined metal bars. And Lan wasn't the only one that noticed either, Chaud as well as Terra, Whisper and Protoman had noticed it too. They all saw the viruses busy at work and knew they had to be stopped. A few more minuets and they would be done. But they were all to busy fighting off the darkloids to do anything about it. As Chaud looked on it became clear that this time they might actually loose. Regal might just get his way. That made his anger flare up once more. Regal wasn't going to win. Not again, he was going to delete those viruses no matter what it took, but he had to get Dark Protoman out of the way first.

* * *

_"Chaud, we have to do something they almost have all the metal in place for transport"._ Protoman thought addressing his operator through their crossfusion link.

_"I know that, but it's not all that easy."_ Chaud exclaimed as he nearly missed one of Dark Protoman strikes.

_"Think about it Chaud, he's been copied from my data, that means that he and I have the same weaknesses all you have to do is exploit them."_ Protoman brought up.

_"Oh, right, thanks."_ Chaud replied wondering why he hadn't thought of that himself.

_"Your welcome."_ Protoman replied although he thought that should be fairly obvious.

"Elecblade, battlechip, in." he called as he switched the sword from his right hand to his left, forcing Dark Protoman to do the same to better to defend Chaud's attacks; however this put Dark Protoman in a tight spot, while Chaud was left-handed Dark Protoman wasn't.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRR" Chaud roared and he was able to strike his advocacy.

"UHH" Dark Protoman groaned as he felt the blow. He tried to strike back but Chaud was too fast. And he soon felt another blow and another, and another, it was too much.

"Dark Protoman logging out."

* * *

"Nebula is going to be back on top again. And Regal is going to have his revenge." One of the Megamen stated still having Lan pinned to the ground.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that." Chaud replied, now that he had Dark Protoman out-of-the-way he was free to get rid of the viruses. "Spreader, battlechip in." he called out as he deleted the viruses.

"No matter," the other Dark Megaman said watching some data stream from the wounds Chaud had received from Dark Protoman, "We've accomplished our mission we'll be in touch."

"Dark Megaman logging out."

"Dark Megaman logging out."

"Dark Whisper logging out."

"Dark Whisper logging out."

"Dark Protoman logging out."

"What did he mean by that?" Lan asked when Chaud helped him up from the floor looking at the metal that had been left in its entirety.

"I have no idea." Chaud replied.

* * *

"This is unbelievable!" the chief yelled as he slammed his hands against the top of his desk making both of Terra and Chaud jump. They had promptly made their way to the chief's office to report what happened,but now really wished they hadn't. They had no idea that the chief had this explosive temper. "And where's Lan?" he demanded when he noticed that he was missing."

"He's at Scilab. Megaman was damaged during the battle." Terra replied hesitantly not knowing what to expect from the angry man.

"That's no excuse." The chief said.

"With all due respect sir I think that Lan has every right…" Chaud started coming to Lan's defense remembering how he had stayed by Protoman's side when he was recovering from the damage the darkchips had created, but was cut off when the chief shot him a deathly glare.

"I think that you two can leave." Manuela said as she entered the room. "That is if the chief hasn't anything more he needs to say." She said coming to Chaud and Terra's rescue.

The Chief didn't make any answer and with that Chaud and Terra scrambled from their seats.

Once the two were into the hall they both let out a sight of relief and shared a look that said the same thing.

"Thank you Manuela!"

* * *

"Don't worry Lan, Megaman will be ok" Dr. Hikari said as he looked at Lan' s worried expression, "He sustained some damage but it's nothing that the reconstruction program won't cure."

It was about an hour after the battle and Dr. Hikari and his crew had returned from Sharro only to find out that Regal had attacked. Everyone was concerned. And the chief was not a happy man. As Terra and Chaud had already found out.

"Thanks Dad." Lan said.

"You're welcome son." His father replied leaving the room while Terra and Chaud came in.

"Is he going to be ok?" they asked as they looked at Megaman who was lay still blacked out on the bed surrounded by a containment field.

"Dad said that the repairs would be done in a few minuets there wasn't much damage. So how'd the chief take the news?" Lan asked.

"Don't ask." Chaud replied.

"That bad?" Lan asked.

"Yeah." Terra said agreeing with Chaud.

"Well anyway," Lan said turning his attention back to Mega, "Terra you were right you know, there really is more to Mega that meets the eye."

Chaud who wasn't present during the conversation between the two was confused.

"What were you right about?" Chaud asked.

"You know, I think that Lan could use some alone time. I'll tell you outside." Terra said as she led Chaud out the door.

Once they were gone Lan pulled up a chair and sat down next to Mega. He couldn't believe it. Mega was his brother. He knew this was true with no doubt in his mind. He could see it in Mega's eyes before he logged out. He just felt so stupid! How could he not see this before!

There had been too many coincidences, to many unanswered questions all starting with his brothers funereal. His parents hadn't grieved. Sure they cried but they really never _grieved_. Not like he had. There were so many signs that he could see looking back. Why hadn't he noticed?

Now he knew why Mega and he had such a strong bond, they were siblings. When they were little they had use to finish each others sentences, they had a deep conection, no wonder they seemed to naturally fall in synch when they battled.

Lan was so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed that Mega had woken up and had been watching at him for the past few minutes. Mega knew that Lan knew who he really was, he could almost literally see the gears turning in Lan's head which was something that didn't happen very often. He could also see that he was getting angry and he thought it would be best to speak up now before it got worse.

"Lan?" he asked breaking the silence. When Lan turned to him with nothing but pain in his eyes he could see he was hurt. "You know don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah Hub I do, wasn't the fact that I literally yelled out your name proof enough for you?" Lan snapped.

"I guess I deserve that." Mega replied.

"Yeah you do." Lan replied calmer this time. "But to fully answer your question, I knew as soon as I saw the birthmark. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Believe me, I wanted to." Mega replied. "But dad didn't think that you were ready to know."

When he heard that Lan exploded.

"He didn't think that I was ready to know that my brother was alive? How could he think that?" Lan yelled as he rose from his chair.

"I don't know your guess is as good as mine! Why don't you ask him?" Mega yelled back as he logged back into Lan's PET and activated the materialization program and appeared in front of his brother. "Look," he said lowering his voice, "We've both missed out on a lot here, you didn't know that I was alive and I've spent the past three years hiding who I was from you. That wasn't easy! And don't think for one second that you're the only one who's been hurt here, because you aren't, not by a long shot. Whether he's realized it or not dad's hurt both of us. So don't take this out one me."

"I know that this isn't your fault." Lan replied. "But I'm mad, and I don't know who to be angry at, you, Dad, Mom, or myself for not figuring this out sooner. I just have all this anger and I need it to just go somewhere." He paused. "Mom does know right?" Lan asked.

Mega hesitiated to answer, he didn't like admitting that the whole family had been lying to Lan for the past eight years. "Yeah she knows." He replied; Lan began to tear up. "Hey, it's going to be ok." Mega said as pulled his little brother into a hug. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do this. How many times I wanted to tell you the truth when I saw you crying and I knew it was because of me. Especially on our birthday. Even thought I knew that the truth would come up sooner or later I never thought that this would be possible." After a few minuets he felt Lan start to relax. "Are you alright?" he asked when he let Lan go but still found himself caught in his brothers embrace.

"Yeah, I am now." He replied when he finally let go. "But I need to go and talk to Dad, alone, if you don't mind."

"That's fine by me, just make sure you don't dump all of your anger on him, I'm not sure that he deserves it either. I'll be with Terra and Chaud if you need me." Mega said as he walked out of the door.

"Thanks." Lan replied in a whisper when Mega had left the room.

* * *

When Mega waked down Scilab's halls he started to wonder why he had decided to walk out of the door and not log back into the PET. After debating it for a few minutes he decided to let it go, there was no use dwelling on it anyway. In his heart he knew the answer: he had been born into this world; this is where he was sopose to be. As he continued down the corridor the strange felling of being back in the real world that had crept up on him began to slip away and it just felt natural for him to be there again. Begin lost in thought as he was he wasn't looking where he was going, and he ran into Dr. Hikari who wasn't any paying attention either. Like father like son.

"Oh, Lan I'm sorry," Dr. Hikari said before he noticed that it wasn't _Lan_ that he had bumped into. "Hub?" he asked noticing for the first time that Mega looked exactly like his brother with his navi look gone. Even thought he has seen the two together just days before he had been to excited about the birth of the PET III to notice. But now here he was looking him straight in the face with noting to distract him. It was like his son had never died.

"Oh Dad, I'm sorry." Mega said picking up some of the files that his father had dropped on the floor. "Here." he said handing the files back.

"I see the repairs are finished." Dr. Hikari said commenting on the fact that Mega was up and walking around.

"Uh, yeah, the damage wasn't that bad." He replied.

Then for the first time he noticed that his son was alone. "Hub where's Lan?" he asked.

"Oh, he's looking for you actually, he said that he wanted to talk to you." Mega replied.

"Do you know what it's was about?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"No," Mega lied, "But it seemed like it was really important. I thinks he's headed for your office."

"Ok, I'll go and find him." Dr. Hikari replied. He was just about to lean down and give Mega a hug when Famous walked by so instead he said. "Thanks Mega I'll do talk to him now." And walked off.

And for the first time it really hurt Mega that his dad had kept him a secret. Besides that fact that Lan hadn't known it really hadn't bothered him before, but now his out look on that was beginning to change. As he watched his father disappear down the hall he had half a mind to follow him and listen to what he was going to tell Lan when Lan told him he know the truth, but he decided against it and decided to go and find Terra and Chaud instead. Even thought he had been unconscious when he was being repaired he still had managed to hear Lan tell Terra that he basically knew the truth so he knew that somehow she had figured it out. And from the way she and Chaud had left the room it seemed that by now he probably knew too. So at lest he had someone else besides his family that he could talk to about his past life.

* * *

"Wow" Chaud remaked as Terra finished telling the story.

"Wow, is right, what I want to know is how Dr. Hikari pulled it off." Terra replied.

"This doesn't surprise me at all." Protoman said; he and Whisper had materialized and were with Terra and Chaud in the lobby waiting for Lan. "Dr. Hikari is one of the most brilliant scientist on the planet."

"Yeah, but bringing your son back from the _dead_, that is slightly more impressive than your average Nobel Prize idea." Whisper brought up, then she heard someone coming. "Hey LLLLan, you're not Lan." She said when she noticed that it was Mega. "Where's Lan?" she asked.

"He went to talk with our dad." He replied.

"That ought to be interesting." Chaud said.

* * *

Lan had walked up and down the hall trying to calm himself down and find his cool before his talked to his dad. Ha just couldn't understand why his dad wouldn't tell him that Hub still existed. After a while he noticed that the pacing wasn't helping so it was now or never.

"Dad can I talk to you?" Lan asked as he waked through the doorway that he had blown up not two hours earlier.

"Sure Lan what is it? I saw that Megaman's ok, what's wrong?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"Nothing really." Lan replied giving a half lie and deciding to get right to the point because making small talk wasn't helping his nerves. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked.

"Lan you don't need my permission to talk to me what is it?" his farther replied wondering why Lan was acting so strange.

"Ok, Um, why didn't you ever tell me that Megaman was Hub?"

When Lan said that Dr. Hikari's face drained of all color. "You know?" he asked.

"Uh huh, during the battle he got a plasma burn to his arm, I saw the birthmark. And after that everything else made scene. You know, all questions I'd ask you that you'd skate around and never answer."

"Lan I wanted to tell you…"

"Then why didn't you?" Lan asked cutting him off.

"Because I didn't know if you were ready. You took Hub's death so hard, I didn't know if you could take it you were only six when he died Lan."

"But I'm almost 14 now, it's been eight years since then. And not only that, he's my brother, my twin brother, and my big brother on top of that, how could you keep this from me?"

"I don't know son, but obviously your ready to know, and it's time I told you everything. Do you remember when the doctors told us that Hub wasn't going to live much longer and he became really weak?"

Lan nodded. "I know Dad, I was there when he died remember?"

"Yes, well when I learned that Hub wasn't going to live very long I took his DNA turned it in to data and created Megaman.

"So Mega's a clone?" Lan asked disappointed. If that were true then Mega wasn't really his brother.

"No, Megaman is Hub, 100 percent, I used his DNA to create his frame, but he's much more than that. Do you remember when Mega and you battled Whily's life virus and we thought that he had been deleted but he survived and I sent you to find him by sending your consciousness into the net and I created an electrical avatar for you?

Lan nodded in reply.

"Well that's the same thing I did with Hub. The machine I used on you was the first model, I used a much more advanced one on Hub. I planned it so right when he was about to die it would transferred his consciousness into the net so when his body died he would be trapped there. Then I took his DNA sequence and turned it in to a data code and recreated his body and made him into a navi. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you this sooner."

"Dad what makes me feel so bad is I feel like I was taken for a fool. For eight years I thought that Hub was dead. And every year on my birthday I was depressed because he wasn't there. At least I don't have to feel like that anymore."

"Like I said I'm sorry I was planning on telling you when you turned fifteen, but I'm glad that you know now. You should go and find Hub, I'm sure you have a lot to talk about.

"Thanks dad."

"Your welcome son."

* * *

"How interesting," Dr. Regal said as he watched Lan leave his father's office. "So that's what makes them so special. I never would have guessed. This will only make my revenge all the more painful when I delete him."

* * *

"So you and Lan covered your baby-sitter with chocolate pudding?" Terra asked.

"Yeah, how old were you when you did that?" Whisper asked.

"Five, If I remember correctly." Mega replied.

"That's something that I would expect from Lan not from you." Chaud said.

"I'd have to agree with Chaud I always thought that you were the level-headed one, not the instigator." Protoman added.

"What can I say, Lan and I are more alike then you think I just had to fake my nature so that Lan wouldn't catch on, fathers orders."

"Well one things for sure," Terra brought up, "All the rules have changed."

"What's so funny?" Lan asked as he walked into the lobby, clearly in a better mood.

"I was just telling them about the trouble we got into when we were little." Mega replied.

"Well we got into plenty of it, we must have gone through like 12 babysitters and each one of them left thinking that we were future serial killers. Hey, you guys still want to go to that tournament?" Lan asked looking at the clock. "We still have time to get there, it starts in half an hour.

"Well I'm still up for it, how about you guys?" Terra said asking everyone else in the room, when no one objected Chaud got out his PET.

"I'll call the car." He said.

TBC


	7. Someone's Watching Us

Chapter 7

Someone's Watching us, Someone's Listening

When the limo arrived the three netsavers, navi's included, climbed in taking seats by one another.

Chaud, Terra, Whisper, Protoman and Mega all eyed Lan with great interest. For someone who had just learned that his dead brother was alive and was his netnavi he seamed fine, not freaked out or even slightly disturbed.

Chaud and Terra couldn't help but think that if they were in Lan's shoes that they wouldn't be this calm so soon. They weren't sure how they would be acting but it would be something other than Lan's happy-go-lucky disposition, but hey, that was Lan for you. The silence that was building was only broken when Mega spoke.

"So, how'd dad take it?" he asked.

"Well he explained everything that happened, and apologized over and over for lying to me for so long. And I'm ok with that, I mean there's no point in dwelling or making a big deal out of it. Anyway, what's done is done and we might as well move on and make the best of what we have." Lan replied. After Lan finished everyone in the car just stared.

"Wow." Protoman stated at Lan's sudden show of maturity.

"Wow is right," Terra said, "we need to mark this day on our calendars, this is about as rare as the planets aligning." Everyone laughed.

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny." Lan said as the tension that was in the air lifted.

"So you guy's aren't freaked out by this?" Mega asked.

"What?" Terra asked. "That you're Lan's brother? No, not really, it makes sense actually, explains a lot of things."

"Yeah, I always thought that there was something special about you two; something other than your strong friendship. Like Terra said it makes sense." Chaud added.

"So with the whole Hub thing we're good?" Mega asked.

"We're good." Chaud and Terra replied together.

Terra's attention then diverted to Proto. She didn't know why but his long hair bothered her. She had to admit that it worked for him as a navi in the net; he had the whole lone samurai vibe, but out in the real world? It just didn't work. After a while Proto caught her gaze.

"Problem?" He asked.

"Yeah...the long hair; why? I mean I get it from a navi point of view, but in the human world? It doesn't work. In all honesty it makes you look like a girl." Terra replied fearlessly. Lan, Hub and Whisper all looked on with a shocked expression. They couldn't beleive that she had just said that, not that they hadn't all thought it.

The statement caught Proto off guard and he found himself glancing in Chaud's direction. What he found on his operator's face he wasn't expecting. Chaud looked like he was ready to crack up.

"I didn't want to say anthing." Chaud said, "But she's right."

After a few seconds of stillness and scilence Proto reached out his hand. "Fine. Give me your PET." Chaud raised his right eyebrow slightly as he did what he ws told; Proto going into the materialzation program's settings. After he keyed in a few commands his long hair along with the knit cap pixilated out being replaced with average short upturned locks of hair that were peppered with black streaks. "Better?" The navi asked.

"Much." Terra replied. But the girl was still curious. Proto still wore those shades, it was like he was hiding something, but what? And why with the long hair gone did he suddenly look so fimuliar?

* * *

"Wow." Whisper breathed as she looked around, they had arrived at the warehouse and there were a ton of people there.

"It looks a lot different from the outside doesn't it?" Terra asked.

"Sure does." She replied.

"I remember our dad taking us to a netbattling tournament before I got sick, it was a lot like this one." Mega said.

"That must be a great memory." Terra said.

"It was." Lan and Mega replied together.

"Hey, if we're going to sign up before the deadline we better hurry. Come on." Chaud said as he led the group into an ally.

"Why are we going way back here?" Lan asked.

"I'm guessing that so when the materialization program is terminated peopled won't be left wondering why three kids just vanished in thin air." Mega replied discontinuing the program himself. "Sometimes I worry about you Lan." He said when he was back into the PET.

When the group got back to the desk most of the people had already signed up so it was clear.

"You got your I.D.?" the girl asked. When they handed her their cards she quickly glanced them over but stopped when she reached Chaud's. "You're the real Chaud Blaze?" she asked looking over his card. He nodded in reply. "Well, welcome to our tournament I hope it proves to be a challenge." She replied handing him back his card. "Next!"

"This is going to be so cool, I've never been to a tournament like this before." Lan said as they walked away.

"Yeah, I haven't either, but a lot of experienced netbattlers are here." Terra said checking out the crowd.

"I know, I've already seen some people from the N1 Grand Pri, you better watch your back Lan, this isn't going to be easy." Chaud added.

"Please," Lan replied, "I got 2nd place at the N1 Grand Pri remember? This will be a piece of cake. Besides I think I'd be more worried about you, you're the one who's up in the first round." He said looking at the score board that was running the battle schedule. "But don't worry Chaud I'm sure you'll do great."

Lan and Terra went to their seats with the rest of the net batters of the edge of the arena while Chaud made his way to the floor to wait for the tournament to start. And unknown to all of them someone was shadowing them.

"This ought to be interesting, I've never seen Chaud netbattle like this before." Terra said taking her seat.

"Ok," the announcer stated from the press box, "we thank you for the great turnout, we're sure to be in for some great battles so lets get star-r-r-r-r-ted! First we have Jackson Price and his navi Static, and they will be facing the one, the only, Chaud Blaze and Protoman! You're in for a real treat tonight people! So let's get ready to battle!" The crowd started to go wild when they heard the well-known duos names.

Chaud stood confidently facing his contender who eyed him nervously waiting for the count down to begin.

"3, 2, 1," the computer counted down, "battle." Everyone intently watched the screen waiting for a navi to make a move.

"Ok, Protoman," Chaud called, "keep your cool let him make the first move, we need to know what we're up against."

"Right." Protoman replied.

Back in the stands Terra felt an uneasy feeling creeping up her spine like someone was watching her; she shook it off and turned her attention back to the battle.

In the mean time Jackson had grown impatient with Chaud not making a move.

"Ok, Static, I guess it's up to us to make the first move." He said. "Go!"

"Static Ray" the navi called as he shot rays of electricity out of his gloves.

"Shield, battlechip in, download!" Chaud called, Protoman received the shield just in time to block the attack and caused it to repel back to Static who barely missed getting hit by his own energy blast.

"Now it' time for us to make a move," Chaud said, "boomerang, bamboo sword battlechip in, download."

"AARRRRRHHHHH" Protoman roared as charged the navi and released the boomerang. Static easily dodged the boomerang the first time and when it came back around.

"Oh, please," Jackson said laughing along with his navi, "that move is so old, did you really expect that to work?" he asked.

"No, but I knew it would cause a good enough distraction." Chaud said, "Protoman now!" he called.

"AARRHHHH," he called out again as he caught the other navi off guard and struck him with the bamboo sword. Since Static was an electric based navi the bamboo sword caused a lot of damage.

"Side bamboo." Chaud called again.

As Protoman threw his hands down, bamboo lances shot up from the ground. The already injured navi tried to dodge and weave but wasn't fast enough and three lances shit up from under him.

"Static logging out." The computer voice called out, "Winner Protoman."

"Hey, you were great." Terra said when Chaud came back to the seat that Lan and she had saved for him.

"Yeah, good job." Lan also congratulated.

"They're right," Jackson said as he walked over and shook Chaud's hand, "that was a good battle, congratulations."

"Thanks, you too. " Chaud commented, then Jackson left.

The group sat back down to watch the next couple of battles, some were short and some lagged on, soon it was Terra's turn. Once on the floor she was faced with her challenger, an 18-year-old boy by the name of Zim Warren, who Terra could tell right off was conceded.

"This ought to be easy." Zim said as he and his navi snickered.

"We'll just see about that." Terra replied as she looked into the stands and saw Chaud and Lan giving her a thumbs up.

"3,2,1, battle." The computer counted down.

"Come on Knightman, let's get this over with, we have better things so do with than to tango with these children."

"What ever you say." the navi replied, "Lance!" he called out as he sprinted toward Whisper.

"Phaser!" Whisper called when he reached her and his lance passed right through her body.

"Huh?" Knightman asked confused when his lance didn't do any damage.

"No one calls me a child, program advance, aqua, fire, bamboo, and elect swords download." Terra called.

"Element sword!" Whisper exclaimed as she struck Knightman four times using each of the swords.

"Knightman logging out."

Zim looked on in disbelief, he couldn't believe that he had been beaten so easily.

"You should really watch that smug attitude of yours, it's going to get you in trouble." Terra said walking off leaving the boy dumbfounded.

"That was great you sure showed him," Lan said as he and Chaud came up to meet her, "Hey, I have to go, I'm up next." He said as he checked the board.

When Lan left Terra started to feel that creepy feeling again. When she had been battling the feeling had dissipated some but now it was gaining strength again.

"Terra are you ok?" Chaud asked when he noticed that she seemed uneasy.

"You don't feel that? Someone's watching us." Terra said. When Chaud began to pay attention he felt it too. Someone defiantly had their eye on them. They turned back to Lan's battle to try to shake to feeling.

"Megacannon, battlechip in!" Lan said as he entered to chip.

"Megacannon!" Mega called as he fired at his opponent whose name was Gammaman, he was a navi about the same height and size as Mega, his blond hair fell over his state eyes on the left side. He wore a gold and scarlet jumpsuit, and he was a worthy opponent as was his operator Ryan Gray. Gammaman dodged the blast.

"Gamma ray," he yelled as he shot his default weapon; Mega barley got out of the way in time.

"Ok, Hub," Lan whispered "it's time to find his weak spot. Cyber sword, battlechip, in." Lan called out

"Custom sword, battlechip in." Ryan said counteracting Lan's move.

"AAARRRRRRHHHH," both navis roared as their swords clashed up against one another. Soon both of the navis were in deadlock.

"He's really good." Terra commented as she watched the battle still trying to shake the creeping feeling that she still had.

"Yeah, and we might be seeing more of him too. The chief wants to recruit a couple more netsavers." Chaud added.

"Wait," Terra said as she came to a sudden realization. "Is that why you suggested that we come here? To spy out new recruits?"

Chaud hesitated before he replied. "Would that be so bad?" He asked.

"Yes!" Terra replied. "That means that this is still work."

All the while Terra and Chaud were talking Mega and Gammaman's battle still continued. Then the computer voice uttered something that wasn't said very often.

"Time expired, draw match, Megaman, Gammaman, proceeded to next round."

By this time Terra's sixth sense was going haywire. Whoever was watching her seemed to be baring into her back. She couldn't take it anymore. When she turned she was shocked at who she saw. He was deep in the crowd but he was there. Dr. Regal.

"Chaud," she asked with a shaky voice.

"Terra-" Chaud started but was cut short when he followed Terra's gaze and saw who she was staring at.

"Dr. Regal." He said gazing at the scientist.

When Dr. Regal saw that he had been spotted he drew back into the shadows, heading out of the arena.

"Hey, stop!" Chaud exclaimed as he ran after Regal, with Terra following.

"Hey, guys, " Lan said turning around to see them out of their seats running after someone, when he saw the familiar white and purple tunic round the corner he decided to follow.

* * *

"It'll be better if we split up, if you head down that corridor we should be able to cut him off." Chaud said pointing to a hallway.

"I'm on it." Terra replied as she splitted off.

"There's nowhere to run Regal," Chaud said as he cornered him.

"You seem to have forgotten this way out." Regal replied, pointing to the open hallway ahead of him.

"Think again." Terra said as she stepped out of the shadows.

"Heh, you two actually think you can bring me down alone?" Regal asked starting to chuckle.

"That's why there's three of us." Lan said coming up behind Chaud.

"Well I'd love to stick around but I just came by to congratulate you on the way you held your own against my darkloids, obviously I still have a lot of work to do, I'll be in touch." He said as he seemed to melt in thin air and an object fell to the ground.

"A holographic generator?" Terra asked as she picked up the object from the ground.

Then Regal's voice filled the air.

"I'll give you this much, you three are determined, I love a worthy opponent. And you are posing to be quite a challenge."

* * *

Back at home Terra sat in her room thinking.

She couldn't help but wonder what was Regal was up to. After he had disappeared Lan, Chaud and she had left the tournament, they had thought about telling the chief what happened but had decided against it. After his explosion earlier that day they didn't think that it would be safe to tell him, that, and they didn't think he would take the news that they went to a rogue netbattling tournament that well. Even if Chaud had wanted to use it as a scouting mission.

But now she was thinking that maybe they should have, they were getting in way over their heads. Regal was playing games with them and she wasn't enjoying it. However, the main thing that made her uneasy was about the guy was his mind. He was frighteningly smart and he knew it, that's what made him so dangerous. He had already managed to somehow copy and warp their navis data, she could only wonder what else he had up his sleeve.

"Terra are you ok?" Whisper asked as she came up behind her op and put her hand on her shoulder, Terra flinched.

"I'm going to have to get use to that."

"Wasn't it your idea?" Whisper asked.

"I know, but having an idea and it becoming a reality are two very different things."

"What were you thinking about?" she asked sitting on the bed across from Terra.

"Dr. Regal, I can't stand not knowing what he's planning."

"Well I'm sure that we'll know soon enough."

"I'm sure we will." Terra replied as she continued to allow her mind to drift. But that wasn't all she was thinking about; Mega was Lan's brother. Did that mean there was hope for her?

* * *

Back at the Hikari residence Lan was having a conversation of his own.

"So that's what Dad actually told you?" Mega asked, he and Lan were in Lan's room in a setting that mirrored Terra's.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, I know he gave me the cliff notes version, but why? Did he lie or something?" Lan asked.

"I wouldn't call it lying per say," Mega replied, "more like lying by omission, he didn't tell you the whole story.

I haven't been alive for just the past three years, I've been alive as long as you. I remember waking up in that computer the first day. I was so confused and scared and when dad explained what had happened to me and that I couldn't tell you that I was alive I never felt more alone.

I know that there's no such thing as a ghost, but with the movies that they make, that's what I felt like. A ghost. I could see the life that I use to have but I couldn't interact. I remember all the times that I begged that I could tell you that I was alive and all the times he told me no. I still don't understand why he wanted to keep it a secret from you, and I probably never will."

"I remember the day that dad gave you to me. The first thing that I thought about when I saw you was Hub. You looked exactly like him and your personality was almost the same...when I asked dad about it he totally shirked me off.

I figured that it was just a coincidence, that maybe he had been thinking about you when he built you. But honestly, I think that that all these years I've known the truth. I always felt a special connection with you, something that I couldn't explain. And then I never felt that Hub was really dead.

I know people usually have that feeling when someone one dies that they were close to, I've heard them talk about it, but I always felt that I was different. Now I know why I had all those feelings, you weren't really dead. I really missed you, Hub."

"I missed you too." Mega replied.

And so the conversation went on like that for hours, the two brothers making up for lost time. Soon though both of them drifted off to sleep.

Dr. Hikari listened in on the boys conversation using the intercom system that was installed in their house from his new bed on the couch in the living room.

His wife had put out of their bedroom when he had come home. She had never agreed with him that they should keep the fact that Hub was alive from Lan, and when Lan had come home with the materialization program open and the way he and Mega were acting she could tell that he knew.

They were acting just like they had when they were children, and there was no other explanation for that. The two had been in Lan's room ever since. So when her husband came home all she had to do was give him _the look_ and he knew that he would be on the couch that night.

Now he knew for sure that having his son keep the fact that he was alive from his closest family had been a mistake. Hearing what Lan and Mega said told him how much unneeded pain he had caused. Eight years of loneliness for his sons. And with these thoughts and feelings of guilt he slowly drifted to sleep.

TBC


	8. Reality Check

Chapter 8

Reality Check

The next morning Lan woke up alone. Megaman was nowhere to be found.

When he checked his PET he noticed that the materialization program hadn't been shut off. So his brother had to be somewhere around the house. As he left his room he began to check upstairs, primarily in the room next to his; the room where Mega had stayed before he was too sick to stay home, but it was empty.

He checked out the rest of the house but came up empty there too, Hub was nowhere to be found. It was early and a weekday so his father had already left for Sci Lab. That meant his mom would have to be in the kitchen. When he walked in the he found his mom over the stove making breakfast and oddly she seamed happier than usual.

Hey Mom, have you seen Mega?" Lan asked when he came up behind her looking over her shoulder and examining what she was cooking.

"Not since earlier dear, maybe he's jacked back into the net."

"He hasn't, I checked, the materialization program is still open."

"I'm sure Hub'll turn up soon dear, you shouldn't worry, in the mean time you need to get dressed and eat if you've taken your shower already, it's a school day." She replied with a smile.

"Hub?" Lan asked.

"Well that is his name dear. I know you found out the truth yesterday; and I'll be honest, it was the happiest day of my life since the two of you were born. I loved seeing the two of you truly together again."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Lan asked.

"I don't know dear, I wanted to, I could see how it was tearing Hub apart and how you were going through so much unnecessary pain; but for some reason your father didn't want to tell you so I abided by his rules. But just so you know I never approved." She said as she bent down and kissed Lan on his forehead. "But I'm glad you know now."

"Thanks," Lan replied as he left the room and headed back up the stairs. His mom was right, Mega probably had a lot on his mind and just needed some air, and he couldn't blame him he had a lot on his mind too.

His mom had called Mega, Hub and so had he the night before but what he couldn't decide was what to really call his brother, Mega or Hub? Technically he was Hub Hikari but for the past three years he had been known as Megaman.

Lan decided to let it go, he would figure it out later, now he needed to finish up that report that he had truly forgotten about the night before.

By the time he had finished with everything and left the house Megaman still hadn't shown up. When he made it to the corner of his street where he usually met Maylu and Terra to walk to school, only Terra was there.

"Where's Maylu?" Lan asked when he met her.

"Oh, she said that she had to get to school earlier today. I don't think she finished typing her report last night. Are you okay?" Terra asked when she noticed the slightly worried look on Lan's face.

"Yeah, I guess, I haven't seen or heard from Megaman since last night, I'm kinda worried." Lan replied.

"You don't need to be," Terra replied, "He probably just has a lot on his mind; he'll turn up soon. Do you know any place he might be?" She asked.

"No, I looked all over the house and I don't know of any place in particular where he would be out here."

"Well like I said before, he'll turn up. But we need to be getting to the school. It starts in half an hour." Terra said checking her watch.

As they walked on in silence Terra started to think of where Mega might be. When she felt she had a pretty good hunch she lagged behind a bit, just to make sure that her whisper would be out of Lan's earshot.

"Hey Whisper." Terra called to her PET.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"I think I might know where Mega is. Can you check it out for me?"

"Sure, but you're being kind of cryptic. Just tell me where to go and I'm there."

"Sorry," Terra apologized, "I want you to check out the graveyard, you know the one on the corner of 63rd and 85th."

For a second Whisper seemed lost, but then she got what Terra was getting at.

"I'm there."

"Hey!" Terra interjected before Whisper left, "You might want to take the fashion chip and the materialization codes with you. If you find Mega there I think you might need them."

"Will do." Whisper said taking the codes and disappearing from the screen in a shower of pixels.

"Hey Terr!" Lan exclaimed from up the street. "You're going to make us late, hurry up!"

"Oh, Lan Hikari actually wants to get to school on time?" Terra replied catching up with her friend.

* * *

Whisper followed Net City's links across town through the traffic system until she came to the graveyard and found who she was looking for. Terra's idea was right on target. She opened the codes and walked quietly up to her friend.

"Hey." She said announcing her presence.

"Hey," Mega replied quietly, almost in a whisper. "Lan sent you?"

"No, Terra did, she figured you might be here. He's worried about you though."

"I didn't mean for him to worry. I just needed to come out here."

"Why?" Whisper asked as she gave a quick glance at the headstone that was engraved with Mega's real name.

"To ask myself a question, I've tried to find an answer."

"Well, you can ask me, maybe I can help."

"You'd think it was stupid."

"Mega, there is no such thing as a dumb question."

Mega hesitated for a second then he spoke. "I came out here to ask myself if I was real."

"Real? I don't understand."

"Real, I mean…, Whisper, we're programs, sure mine is based on my DNA but I'm still data. And so are you. I was talking with Lan last night, talking about all these memories that we had from when we were kids. And thanks to Terra it's possible that I can be in the same world as my family. For a second it felt that I had never been gone. Then I remembered this." He said looking at the headstone. "I'm still dead. I'm unnatural, a freak of nature."

"First off, you're a freak of technology, not nature." Whisper said trying to bring a smile to Mega's face.

It didn't work but she thought she saw a sparkle in his eyes.

"Second as far as being "real" goes it depends on who you talk to. Some people view us a disposable and others don't. Lan, Terra, Chaud and all their friends consider us to be other people and we're their best friends.

I remember once when Terra stuck up for a navi. It was before we moved here, back in our old school in Metro City and this one operator was chewing out his navi because he made some mistakes on his report and he received a lower grade.

She came to the navi's defense and told the operator to lay off, he wasn't perfect and neither was his navi, he was bound to make a few mistakes. Then the operator began to say why should he care if his navi wasn't perfect he was just data and he could be easily replaced. Afterward Terra argued that his navi was a person too and that he deserved respect.

She said that since all navi's had received an AI program that gave them personality and free will that they were just as human if not more than their creators and besides humans were programs too.

Then after she had made her speech she had the support of the entire class, the boy was forced to agree with her and after that the relationship between those two changed, in fact they've been best friends ever since.

That's when I finally understood why Terra treated me the way she did, as her equal, since then I've never looked back and thought of myself as any less. But when it comes down to it all that matters is what Lan thinks, and in his mind's eye you're as real to him as if you never died.

So what if you're materialized pixels now instead of flesh and blood? He doesn't care; neither do your parents and you shouldn't either. The only thing that's in that grave is your body not you, you're still here with us."

By the time Whisper had finished speaking Mega had relaxed and life had returned to his face.

"I can't believe you just made sense of all that, I've been out here for three hours, thanks you're a good friend you know that?"

"Well what kind of person would I be if I couldn't help a friend when they're down, or help them understand the world?"

"Yeah I guess that's true." Mega said with a chuckle.

"We should probably get to school, I bet both Lan and Terra are both worried now."

"Yeah we-" Mega started but was interrupted when an explosion erupted a few blocks away.

"Isn't that the federal district?" Whisper asked looking as smoke started to rise.

"We need to get out of here." Mega said.

* * *

Back at school Lan, Maylu, Terra and their other friends (with the exception of Dex) had finished taking a test and were outside talking while the rest of the class finished.

"So Lan did you understand any of the material on the test?" Yia asked who was as usual the first one done.

"Let's just say that this time I listened but there's a big difference between knowing the material and understanding it."

"Well that's one way for your GPA to go up." Tory commented.

"Sure, if answering questions practically blind is a good thing." Terra added.

"Hey!" Lan said starting to defend himself but stopped when Mega suddenly came running up the street yelling out his name with Whisper close behind.

"Lan, Terra," they said, both their voices overlapping.

"What's wrong?" Lan asked with mixed emotions, he was happy that his brother had turned up but concerned seeing that he seemed worried about something.

Lan's friends looked on dumbfound and in disbelief. Sure Terra and Lan had shown them the new PET and told them all about its new functions and had even mentioned the materialization program, but it's one thing to hear about it and something else to actually see it. And here were Mega and Whisper in the flesh or materialized pixels, whatever.

"There was a huge explosion in the federal district, it sounded like a bomb went off." Whisper mentioned.

"OMG! look they're right!" Maylu exclaimed as the smoke rose visibly in the air.

"Do you think it is some kind of terrorism?" Terra asked looking at the rising smoke.

"You mean political terrorism or net terrorism? I have no idea." Mega relied.

But they didn't have to wait long for an answer. A few seconds later Lan and Terra's PET's went off.

"Hey Mr. Famous what's going on?" Lan asked when the scientist appeared on the screen.

"There's been a major security breach at the Embassy in the federal district, I'm pretty sure you heard the explosion?"

"Yeah but I sounded like a car crash from here." Terra said.

"Far from it. That explosion was caused by the security system being blown out. I need you two to get over there right away Chaud's already on his way he'll met you there. Knowing what's been going on lately this is probably Regal's doing."

"Famous, we're at school and although I would love to we can't just get up and leave." Lan pointed out.

"Don't worry about that, we'll tell Miss Mari what's going on." Yai said.

"Ok then let's go." Lan said deactivating the materialization program and Terra doing the same.

"We'll se you guys later." Terra said unlocking her skates following Lan down the street.

After about 10 minutes of skating the two started to get tired.

"Hub how far away are we from the Embassy?" Lan asked.

Mega hesitated for a second at hearing his real name, he still hadn't gotten use to being called that again but he recovered and answered the question. "One-hundred blocks."

"Leave it to Regal to attack a place that's at the far end of town. I can't last ten more block much less one-hundred." Terra said breathlessly.

"Thankfully we won't have to." Lan said as he glanced behind him and saw a black limo pull up.

"You need a lift?" Chaud asked opening the door.

"You read our minds." Lan replied as he and Terra got in. Once inside they continued on their way.

"This is unbelievable." Terra said. "This is the fourth time that Regal's attacked or shown his presence in the past two weeks, he just carried out a huge attack yesterday and he's starting a major one today, what's he doing?" Terra asked.

"He's trying to ware is down, exhaust us," Chaud said in an even and level tone, "unlike him we have to battle; he just sits on a thrown somewhere and give out orders."

"Okay but what's he after?" Lan asked, "what could he need from the Embassy?"

"Security codes." Terra mentioned.

"Exactly that's what I thought," Chaud added, "The Embassy has all of Dentech's major codes in their system, and if he could get his hands on those he could override every major building and military base in the country. Everything would be under his control."

"So yesterday's attack at Scilab was just practice?" Whisper asked remembering the previous day.

"Seams so." Chaud answered.

"Yeah but still it's going to take a while for him to break through their defenses. That embassy has three back up security systems and 15 layers of firewalls. That's quite a challenge for any darkloid." Mega added

"That's why Regal copied your data!" Lan exclaimed coming to the conclusion they should have right away. "He knows you contain the Searchsoul program, he needs that if he wants to force his way past those firewalls with the limited time he as before the net police take action.

Chaud and Terra's jaws dropped at Lan's sudden insightfulness.

"Hey, I'm not totally brain-dead." He said.

"Yeah," Terra replied, "you're just clueless in pre-algebra."

When they arrived at the embassy all the people in the building and ones surrounding had been evacuated; and the usually busy area and the multi language music that gave the federal district its special distinction was now gone making the neighborhood have an eerie spine tingling vibe.

"Is Famous sure that Regal's behind this? This could be the work of any radical group, I mean there aren't any darkloids and his booming voice hasn't dropped out of thin air yet." Terra said eyeing the steel building.

For a reason unknown to everyone Chaud happened to glance up in time to catch a certain twinkle as something caught the light from the sun.

"Look out!" he exclaimed as he tackled Terra out of the way as an airborne dimensional area generator injected it's self into the ground right where Terra had been standing seconds earlier. Soon the dimensional area had sealed them inside.

Terra's eyes widened as she raised herself from the ground and stared at the generator, "I take that back, this is Regal's doing."

"Chaud," Protoman called from his PET, "We need to get a move on, the darkloids have hacked through the firewalls. They're working on the encryption codes."

"Are they working from the net side or this one?" Chaud asked.

"They're on our side." Proto replied.

"Well then we should probably crossfuse now just to be safe. Since Regal's is behind this we need all the protection we can get he's not going to play fair." Lan brought up.

After crossfuseing they entered the building. Chaud once again took charge, barking orders.

"Ok, I think we need to split up, since the firewalls are controlled by three separate main computers throughout the building, there's no way just one darkloid could have knocked all of them down this quickly, there has to be more than one. Whisper, Terra do you think you can sense where and who our darkloid friends are? Since Regal's probably using the doubles we don't want to run into ours again."

"We should in a second." They both replied, Terra closing her eyes and concentrating, she smiled when she found who she was looking for. "Ok, the mainframes are at the end of the main halls. Chaud, you need to go to the right, Lan keep straight and I need to go to the left."

"Got it." The two boys replied as they split.

As Terra bolted down the hall to the control room she prepared herself for the battle ahead. She had wanted to know if she could bring this guy down for a while, when she reached the door she found it locked.

"What? did you expect the door to be open?" Whisper asked from her half of the crossfusion.

"Maybe." Terra replied as she summoned a laser blast and blew the door out and locked eyes with her advocacy: Dark Protoman.

* * *

"Here we go Hub, " Lan said as he came to the door.

"Just make sure you stay on your toes this time." Mega replied.

Just when Lan was preparing to kick the door in it seemed to _fizzle_ and he fell straight through flat on his face. When he went to kick it he had found out that it had no substance.

"So much for staying on my toes." He muttered to himself under his breath.

When he looked up he noticed what had caused his clumsiness. Dark Whisper had her hand pressed against the door frame transferring her phasing ability.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in." She said looking down at him with a smirk on her face, "You have a problem staying on your feet don't you?"

* * *

As Chaud neared his destination he began to be counseled by his navi.

"Ok Chaud you need to get your game face on you're going to be up against one of two doubles, either Dark Megaman or Dark Whisper."

"Right," Chaud replied summoning something neutral that would work on both, a cyber sword.

Chaud wasn't even going to bother checking to see whether the door was locked or not, he was just going to cut it down. But he was in for a surprise, just as he got near the door it blew open and he was thrown back by the blast. When he looked up he was looking into the eyes of Dark Megaman, but he wasn't the only one…

* * *

"Long sword battlechip in, download." Terra exclaimed as she lunged at Dark Protoman. She knew that when Protoman had been under the influence of the darkchips that he hadn't ever given anyone the first strike and as this guy was a remake of him she expected nothing less. So she wasn't going to give him an opening, and her impulsive move worked, she clipped him on the leg.

"Ugh," Dark Protoman groaned as the sword sliced through his leg. This girl was good if not a little headstrong but he didn't have time to deal with her.

Terra was waiting for Dark Protoman to make his move but when he did it was something she didn't expect. Using the back of his hand he slapped her knocking he off her feet and causing her to drop to the floor.

"Sorry," he said, "but I don't have time for you, but someone else might." He said as he walked back toward the computer and another pixel shower appeared in front of Terra coming together and forming Burnerman.

"Should we pick this up where we left off?" he asked.

* * *

"Dark spritshock," Dark Whisper called out as she released her attack. Lan quickly threw up and shield and was about to deliver his own attack when she used her phasing ability and caused him to fall through her.

"As much as I would love to kick your butt, I don't have time, Gravityman take care of this pest." She said walking away.

"With pleasue. " Gravityman replied in his deep monotonous robotic voice when he appeared. "It would be my pleasure to delete you Lan and Megaman or more correctly Lan Hikari and Hub Hikari."

"WHAT?" both brothers exclaimed.

* * *

"Spikeman," Chaud stated as he looked at the other navi, "what are you doing here?" he asked demanding a reply.

"Well we knew that you no good netsavers would try to stop us. And if we were going to be able to break through those firewalls and encryption codes we wouldn't be able to deal with you, so we called in some back up." Dark Megaman commented.

"And it would be my greatest pleasure to dispose of you Blaze," Spikeman declared as he released his attack, "Spikevolly!"

* * *

"Burning jet!" Burnerman yelled out as flames erupted from his hands.

"How close is Dark Protoman from cracking the encryption codes?" Terra asked her navi as she sidestepped the attack.

"He's getting there, if we're going to stop him we don't have time to play tag with Burnerman." Whisper replied.

"You just read my mind," Terra said, "Whisper jack in and power up!" she called as Whisper materialized. When she appeared Burnerman looked slightly impressed.

"So this is what the next generation of PET can do, to bad it's not enough to stop me!"

"Oh please, "Whisper said, "how do you think you can bring the two of us down?"

"Like this, flame thrower!" he exclaimed as he shot off an attack that the girls both easily dodged but became unnerved when the attack hit the wall behind them and the fire almost seemed to denigrate what it licked. "Let's just say I've had an upgrade." Burnerman stated. "And it's time for you to say goodbye, flame arm!" he shouted again as his arms stretched out and fire encircling them as he tried to grab hold of the two netsavers.

"I think not." Terra said as he twisted her body and flipped over him, "Geyser, battlechip in, download."

"I would have to agree with her." Whisper added as she ducked down to avoid Burnerman's flame, "Bubbleshot, battlechip in", she said as her buster charged and she aimed her shot and fired.

"You think that little splash'll hurt me?" Burnerman asked as he stayed still letting the attacks hit him full on. When the digital smoke dissipated both girls saw that their attack had left little damage unlike before. "Just admit it I'm too hot to handle!"

By now Terra was really disgusted with this guy. "If you think we're going to roll over and play dead think again indiancandle, tittle wave, battlechip in!" she cried as she slammed her hands into the floor.

"That little splash isn't going to hurt me!" Burnerman said full of himself.

"No, but this might, Elect blade!" Whisper added as she summoned the sword and joined it with the power of the tittle wave, turning the wall of water electric. By the time Burnerman figured out what they were up to he didn't have time to get out of the way so he was over come by the attack. Once he was down Whisper didn't give him a chance to get up and he delivered a strike with her blade again.

"You think you can handle him alone?" Terra asked.

"Positive." She replied.

* * *

"How do you know about me being Hub?" Mega demanded. Since Gravityman had uttered the statement Mega had activated the double crossfusion program and was now facing the enormous robot.

"Please," he replied in his expressionless voice, "master Regal knows everything about you, how do you think he's managed to stay one step ahead of you? But enough talking it's time I deleted you gravitydirve." He stated as he sent the attack forcing the twins in two different directions to avoid it.

"Remember," Mega said addressing his brother, "we have to hit him with something with more destiny than his gravity wave if we want to do any damage."

"On it," Lan replied, "rockcube battlechip in" he stated as he threw his arms to direct the path of the cube.

As soon as the rockcube made contact Mega wasted no time to make his move. "Long sword battlechip in," he called as he leaped in the air and sliced Gravityman down the middle.

* * *

"Spike volley!" Spikeman called out as he shot his spikes at Chaud.

Chaud manaded to dodge them barely avoiding getting clipped or impaled. He had to get rid of this guy, the Megaman double was getting closer and closer to cracking the encryption codes and he had to do something fast, he didn't have time to play pin the spike on the netsaver. Then he thought of something, it was risky but it was the only thing he could think of, and he couldn't do it alone.

"Protoman!" Chaud said calling his navi.

"Yes, Chaud?" Proto replied.

"I have a plan on how to get pincushion off our back, but I'll need your help. When I give the signal I need you to separate from me and once you do you'll know what to do."

"Right." the navi replied.

"Hey Spiky!" Chaud said trying to tick the darkloid off. "I think you missed."

"Oh we'll se about that, splinter storm!" he shouted as he released a very powerful attack.

Chaud began to run and zigzag again, when he came to the wall he used his momentum and weight to push himself horizontally into the air, now facing the attack he was better able to avoid it. "Now!" he exclaimed. Taking his cue Protoman separated himself from Chaud. "Wide sword, battlechip in, download', Chaud called as he brought up the weapon shattering Spikeman's jamming his hands and rendering them useless. Then it was Protoman's turn.

Custom sword, battlechip in", he said as he delivered a blow.

* * *

"Hey Proto boy!" Terra called out to the darkened navi as she passed Burnerman.

"Huh," Dark Protoman scoffed as he continued cracking the encryption codes. "So you managed to get past Burnerman but you don't think that you can actually win here do you?" he asked.

"I don't see why not." Terra replied.

"Well let's look at something for a second. Sure you've managed to get past Burnerman, but what makes you think that Whisper can handle him alone? And just think since I've had back up Chaud and Lan are up against the same thing, you may be good but you're not that good."

"Well let me let you in on a little secret," Terra said matching him in inflection and wit, "I love to be underestimated, and as far as Lan and Chaud they can handle any darkloid you toss at them and far as Whisper goes she can handle that burnout."

And seeming to prove with Terra's statement Burnerman came skidding across the floor heavily damaged before that familiar computer voice said: "Burnerman deleted." And that wasn't all both Spikeman and Gravityman came crashing through the wall before meeting the same fate followed by Chaud, Protoman, Lan and Megaman who took a stand along Whisper and Terra. In the next second Dark Whisper and Dark Megaman pixelated beside Dark Protoman too.

"Seams we've underestimated them." Dark Whisper stated.

"Well they won't be so dangerous for long," Dark Protoman said as he struck the emblem on his chest. All of a sudden a hot bright blinding light seamed to engulf the entire room swallowing everyone in it. Afterward a strange tingling feeling came over the young netsavers before they felt indescribable pain, the only relief they felt was when they blacked out. The last thing that Terra heard before she lost consciousness was a puzzling statement uttered by Dark Protoman.

"See you on the other side."

* * *

Terra's eyes fluttered open minuets later. The pain was gone and she has regained consciousness, but something didn't feel right. When she got her eye to stay open and focus she was shocked at what she saw, or what she didn't see.

Everything was blue, the floor the walls, even the ceiling. For a second she was paralyzed with fear of the unknown, then she noticed who sitting along side her. Chaud and Lan were there too both their faces looked like they were set in stone, their eyes were wide and dilated and their mouths were open. If it were possible for their jaws to drop to the floor they would have been there. As the three friends looked at their surroundings the same thought was running through each of their minds:

"We're… in… the…Internet?"

TBC


	9. Netbattling 101

Chapter 9

Netbattling 101

In the darkness Dark Protoman, Dark Megaman, and Dark Whisper looked on as Lan, Chaud, and Terra gaped at their surroundings, they really were pathetic. Soon a voice shattered the silence.

"How are the newest residents of the net doing? I hope no part of them was left behind." The voice said. It was Regal.

"Oh they're doing great, they came through perfectly not one portion of them was left." Dark Protoman replied.

"That's good to hear you know the mission we've led them here to take their power, nothing else." Regal said.

"Oh, come on we can't delete them?" Dark Megaman whined.

"You know sometimes I worry about you, you act more like Lan than you do Mega." Dark Whisper said.

"Enough of your rambling!" Regal exclaimed, "I knew that I shouldn't have copied a teenaged navis data." He said to himself. "But no you can't delete them," he said a loud voice, "I have something far more deadly for them in mind later."

"Excellent." Dark Protoman said.

* * *

"Ugh, what was that?" Protoman said when he picked himself off the floor.

"No idea but what ever it was it gave me a headache." Mega replied.

"No kidding," Whisper added, she still felt disoriented.

"Well, well, well, glad to see you're all awake. Took you long enough." Dark Protoman said, his cool voice cutting through the air.

The three navis swung around coming face to face with a net space monitor seeing the three darkloids each with a devious look on their faces holding their operators, sword to throat.

Lan let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah I know this is kinda shocking, but could we have some help here?" he asked.

"How is that…" Proto stared then losing his voice, for the first time in his life he was at a loss.

"Possible." Whisper finished.

"Oh, it wasn't all that." Dark Whisper said. "A little conversation of their physical structure here, a change in their biochemistry translating it to binary there. We even overlayed their frames with your data so it wouldn't be so freaky, it wasn't too hard. Oh wait...yes it was. And BTW you're not crossfused anymore, it's back to basics."

"And capturing them was like taking candy from a baby, these three were in such shock they were almost catatonic." Dark Megaman added.

"What do you want?" Mega demanded.

"What we want," Dark Megaman replied, "is for you to lay off, just turn around, walk away and let us get what we came for. The added bonus is clueing you in to how vulnerable you can be. You aren't as strong as you might think and we just wanted to prove to you how helpless you really are. Especially you Hikari." He said addressing Mega. "You've spent the past three years protecting your brother, how do you feel now that he's so close to death and you can't do anything about it?" Dark Megaman added inching the sword closer to Lan's throat for added emphasis.

Mega clentched his fists. "What gives you the impression that I can't do anything about it?" He asked.

"Because if you guys even think of jacking in here they'll be deleted quicker than you can download."

Lan could feel his brother's anger rising, it felt strange to feel his heightened emotions again but since the truth had come out the day before things had begun to change. Whatever had formed a wall between them had broken and their constant perception of each other returned. Lan fumbled around with the case on his back looking for something his dad had just added it to his brother's programming and if he could get to it he could get free before Mega and the others were forced to compromise.

_"Hub, keep your cool I have an idea."_ Lan said through the link.

_"What are you planning on doing."_ Mega replied.

_"You'll see."_ Lan said back.

"So what it gonna be, the military codes their lives?" Dark Megaman asked.

"How about neither?" Lan said as he found what he was looking for flipping a switch on the case and activating the boosters that it now contained. Using the momentum that they provided he swung his body over Dark Megaman's slamming his feet into his back forcing him to release him. Chaud and Terra didn't waste a second of the now distracted darkloid's attention and broke away for their captors.

"Negations are over darkloids." Protoman stated taking hold of Chaud's PET with Mega and Whisper doing the same, and Lan, Terra and Chaud taking defensive stances in the net.

"Hah," Dark Protoman said with a laugh, "you really think you can win with our abilities against yours?" he asked.

"I don't see why not, you're not invincible." Mega replied.

"Only you would think that." Dark Whisper said. "You're still are way over your heads you know, you can't even netbattle now. You're totally backward."

"Why not?" Whisper replied, "So what if our positions are reversed, netbattling is netbattling whatever side you're on. How could you honestly think that we don't know how to battle from the outside? We're not like some empty-headed netnavi that blindly follows a netop's orders. We listened and learned. Did you really think that we could battle for three years and not pick up a thing or two?" Whisper asked.

"You sure?" Terra whispered. "You guys are going to have to operate us the entire battle, whatever navi signtures we have they're not in the PET's memory, we won't be able to access the chip library ourselves."

"Positive." Whisper replied.

"And if you think that we're going to let you waltz right outta here because we may be slightly screwed you've got another thing coming." Protoman added.

"Well I for one am tired of hearing your babble, how about you prove you can walk the walk. You've already proved to can talk the talk, it's time to settle this." The Dark Megaman said as he drew another sword.

"Yes let's." Terra said forgetting for a second the predicament she was in.

"Oh we'll see about that, areasteal!" He shouted out as he disappeared and reappeared behind Terra grabbing her and taking him with her with him.

"Terra!" Lan and Chaud exclaimed as they called after her and when they started to act to help her two swords appeared in front of their necks stopping them in their tracks.

"Let's see if your friend can survive first." Dark Protoman and Dark Whisper said together.

* * *

"Uhh," Terra groaned as she suddenly hit the floor, as soon as she took in her surroundings she noticed that she was at the far end of the room totally put on display for Dark Protoman and Dark Whisper, as well for Lan and Chaud and she quickly got back to her feet.

"Well let's see what you've got." Dark Megaman said as he took his place across from her.

"Bring it on." Terra replied.

"Well you asked for it, long sword!" he changed his arsenal and flew toward Terra.

Terra glared as Dark Megaman came at her as she backed away. Even though she had a determined look on her face she really hoped that Whisper did know how to battle from the outside or she was going to be in deep trouble. Without the power to control battlechips from the outside the only abilities that she had were the defaults and as handy as they were they wouldn't stand a chance against Dark Megaman. Plus even though she trusted Whisper just the fact that she wasn't in control made her slightly nervous, but soon as those feelings surfaced they were put aside.

"Murrassa, battlechip in, download!" Whisper's voice rang out. Terra received the electrified neon glowing sword just in time to deflect Dark Megaman's.

* * *

"Well it seems like your friends can handle themselves, for now at least." Dark Protoman said as he saw Terra block Dark Megaman's strike.

"Seems so." Dark Whisper said as she traded her sword in for a more deadly looking one.

"The question is can you?" they asked together.

"AAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH" they reared as they stared another attack.

* * *

With her confidence returned Terra was back to being her old self, which included irking her enemy.

"Well, well, well." Terra said as their swords clashed, "Seems like you finally figured out that you can't get anything done if you go against your counter part, congratulations."

"Yeah thanks", the other navi replied trying to use Terra's tactic of talking to distract her, but she was one step ahead. She used her strength to push them apart.

"Hi-cannon battlechip in." Whisper said again as Terra jumped back from Dark Megaman and raised her arm and took her shot, which blasted Dark Megaman point-blank in the chest.

"AAAGGGGHHHRRRRAAAA," he groaned as he skidded across the floor. Terra used the opening to a look over her shoulder and noticed that she wasn't the only one battling. But as she did she stated to feel funny, like something had been pulled out of her. And as she watched Dark Megaman pick himself up from the floor damage free he didn't seem phased. What was going on?

* * *

"Sonicboom!" the Dark Protoman exclaimed as he directed his attack at Lan.

"Mirror, battlechip in," Mega said not needing anymore incentive to act and downloaded the defensive device.

"Mirror!" Lan called out when received it and used it like a tennis racket and backhanded the attack back to its sender.

"You're getting on my nerves kid," Dark Protoman stated as he barely managed not to be clipped by his own attack.

"Glad to hear it." Lan replied as he waited for his brother to make another move.

"Long sword, battlechip in." Mega called out as he sent his brother the offensive tool.

"Long sword," Lan called out as he came at Dark Protoman forcing him to activate his default sword to block the attack, he pushed with the sword but Lan pushed back with equal pressure. They were in deadlock and neither of them moved.

"Looks like someone's been working out, " Dark Protoman commented, "to bad the rules of nature don't apply here in the net.

All of a sudden Lan's arms started to go limp it was like the energy was literally being pulled out of his body. He couldn't hold Dark Protoman back any longer and was forced to pull back.

Dark Protoman wasted no time taking advantage of Lan's sudden weakness. "YYYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGGGG " Dark Protoman roared as he kicked Lan's feet out from under him causing him to hit the floor.

"Wide sword battlechip in." Mega called out as a defensive tactic as Dark Protoman brought his sword toward Lan from above. Lan got the sword just in time to raise it over his head to stop Dark Protoman sword from coming in contact with his skull. He quickly spun his feet around returning Dark Protoman the favor by knocking his feet from under him. Once he was down Lan lost no time putting distance between them.

_"Lan what was that?"_ Mega asked through the link.

_"I have no idea it was like my energy was being sapped."_ Lan replied.

"Lan look out!" Mega called again as he saw Dark Protoman suddenly appear behind Lan. Lan brought up his sword just in time to parry Dark Protoman.

_"Here we go again."_ He thought.

* * *

"Areasteal, aqua sword, battlechip in," Protoman called out as Chaud received the sword and disappeared in a glowing neon motion. When he appeared next to Dark Whisper she simply sidestepped him and when he lost his balance she used his own sword to strike him. As Chaud passed her on his way to the floor he could have sworn he felt as if something had been sucked out of him.

"AAAGGGGGGGH" Chaud groaned as he hit the floor. Dark Whisper walked up to him with a coy smile, "Seems like you haven't made the transition yet." She said changing her smile to a sly one.

"We'll se about that, electro sword, step cross battlechip in!" Protoman exclaimed, Chaud received the crackling weapon and flew toward Dark Whisper.

"Phaser!" she called as her body became holographic and Chaud stopped with the sword inside her body.

"You really didn't expect that to work did you?" she asked.

"Oh course not," Chaud replied, "but this will," he said powering up the sword.

"AHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHH" she screamed as the electricity from the sword changed her body back to its normal state causing the attack to intensify, and she only found relief when she threw herself to the floor.

"Looks like you caught on," she said breathing heavily, "to bad you won't have time to celebrate." Dark Whisper said with a glint in her eyes, "Hey Dark Megaman, Dark Protoman I think they're ripe and ready it's time to get what we came for."

With that the darkloids emblems began to glow and a bright light encircled them all forcing Lan, Chaud and Terra to back off. When they regrouped they noticed that they were all starting to look winded, and their eyes looked weak, they were loosing their spark. It seemed that no matter how hard they battled or how much damage the caused the darkloids kept popping back up. What were they immortal?

"Ok," Protoman said over the PET, "This has to end now, you're running out of energy fast, Regal must have programmed them to have an extensive energy supply, they're just sapping yours."

"Wow really?" Lan asked sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed."

"Anyway," Mega continued ignoring Lan's comment, "From what I can tell normal netbattling isn't going to do anything. Like Protoman said they must have some major energy reserves, they're gaining as much power as their loosing."

"Exactly," Whisper agreed.

"While we keep getting weaker and weaker." Terra said mostly to herself. "Guys, there's something else going on here. It's not like they just have a ton of energy and they're trying to tire us out, Dark Megaman pulled something out of me." Terra added.

"They're parasitic." Chaud said suddenly.

"What?" Lan asked confused.

"Well think about it, since when have you ever battle a navi and when your energy level went down you hadn't knocked theirs down along with yours? But Protoman was right they do have an extensive power supply and we're it. Hey Protoman check the energy levels from that battle, I want to know if I'm right."

"He is," Protoman commented as he looked over the levels; for every time that Lan, Chaud or Terra lost power their darkened counterparts gained the same amount.

"How right you are." three voices called out as the ball of energy that was encompassing all the darkloids seemed to expand and they sent out electrified tenticals that shot toward the netsavers.

"Lan look out!" Chaud exclaimed as shoved Lan out of the way of one of the arms as it snaked toward him, only to get caught by one that came from behind.

"Chaud!" Lan and Terra exclaimed together only to be snatched up a split second later.

"How smart of you to figure out our tactics." The three darkloids said on unison almost in an echoing voice. "We were planning on stealing your life force little by little and then delete you but this way is so much more fun wouldn't you agree? Especially with your navis forced to look on helplessly as we suck the life out of you."

"This is what it was all about wasn't it?" Terra managed to ask. "You never were after the security codes were you? You were after our power why?"

"Well aren't you a quick." The darkloids stated, "but unfortunately that's for us to know and you to find out." They said as they began to extract the power all the faster. This only led to the three teens to let out deafening screams that slowly began to fade…

Whisper couldn't stand hearing her friends' agonizing screams. "Isn't there something we can do." She asked, she was so horrified that she couldn't think strait and nothing was coming to her mind that could help her friends.

"You bet we can," Mega replied, the darkloids were stripping Lan, Terra and Chaud's life force away from them, life force was electrically based, all he had to do was reverse the polarity. There was no way he was going to let his brother and friends die. But before he could act the tentacles that were holding the three teens relaxed. The three navis watched as their bodies limply dropped to the floor and a portion of their energy poured back into them, the three navis next gave them recovery data returning them to full strength and they slowly got back the their feet. Soon after the power field that had encompassed the darkloids shattered.

"Thanks." Lan said in gratitude speaking for everyone since he was the only one who could find his voice at the time.

"I wish I could say you're welcome, but I didn't do that, they let you go." Mega replied.

"What?" Lan asked openly shocked, "but why?"

"I don't know but stay sharp this isn't over yet." His brother replied.

"No kidding," Lan replied as he saw three figures emerging from the smoke. "Sorry but I'm no ones back up battery, freaks." Lan said he and the others watched as the darkloids walked out. When they did they saw that they had had a major upgrade.

"Oh I wouldn't ever call you a back up battery," the Dark Megaman stated, "You're more like a power feast, Lan."

This sent chills down Lan's spine hearing his brother's voice in that tone, this took the expression 'evil twin' to a whole new level.

"They changed themselves to fire element navis." Mega said in disbelief as he looked through the PET screen at the darkloids body suits had changed from their respective colors to a scarlet red.

"Oh great," Terra uttered in a whisper as she looked upon the darkloids new forms. When their power had been restored she thought that they might stand a chance but now that the darkloids had received another upgrade and an element one at that their chances of defeating them were looking slim.

_"Don't worry._ "Whisper replied when she began to feel Terra's apprehension. "_No matter how strong any navi seems they all have a weak spot, and once you find it they're done for, plus now that they have an element that just makes it easy."_

_"Right."_ Terra replied, shaking the fear that was trying to creep up on her, then she turned to the darkloids, "You know red really isn't your color." She told them.

"Well thanks for noticing," Dark Whisper replied.

"Huh," Dark Protoman grunted. "You think that just because we let you go that you now have a chance against us?" he asked. "I hate to tell you but we absorbed enough of your power to delete you ten times over. You have no idea how powerful you really are."

"Well I guess we're about to find out." Chaud said as he took a battle stance.

"I guess we will, dark fire arm!" Dark Megaman called out making the first move sending twin jets of searing heat directly at the three netsavers.

"Shield, battlechip in!" Mega called as Lan brought it up blocking the fire, even though it didn't cause them any damage the fire still designated the shield.

"They have the same power that Burnerman had." Terra said.

"Mega, you guys have a plan up there?" Lan asked as he and the rest of the group began to back away.

Megaman glanced at his two friends who both gave him a sly smile. "We sure do." He replied, "It's time to pull out all the stops, this ends now! WoodSoul, doublesoul in download, he called as Lan's body suit began to change from blue to brown. As soon as his brother took action Lan wasted no time in making a move, he didn't even need to ask what Hub had in mind, he knew exactly what his brother wanted.

"Twister!" Lan exclaimed when the transformation was completed the aerodynamic attack erupted from his hands encircling the darkloids and lifting them from the ground.

"You really think that a little wind is gonna hurt us?" Dark Megaman asked.

"No, but this might." Lan said as he activated his attacks full potential.

The darkloids kept their heads cool but Lan could see that they were loosing power and could see the beginning of worry in their cold eyes. (Dark Megaman and Dark Whisper's eyes' anyway.) The darkloids knew that in their ignorance they had just let themselves be trapped, but there wasn't much they could do about it. Besides they still had the advantage, if the netsavers deleted them they would be stuck in the net.

As Dark Whisper felt her energy being drained away she started to retaliate. "Scarlet fire arm!" She exclaimed as she sent a super heated stream at Lan but the fire extinguished before it reached him. "How'd you do that?" she demanded.

A cocky smile came over Lan's face, he loved it when his enemy's demanded how he was defeating them.

"It called chemistry 101, see you're a fire based navi now and the vortex that I've formed from the twisters has created a vacume that's sucking all the oxygen out of the air, therefore draining you of all your energy." Lan said smugly. "Considering you're a copy of Whisper I'd expect you'd know that. Dr. Regal didn't take any shortcuts in intellect department did he?"

Chaud, Terra, Mega, Proto and Whisper all looked on in disbelief.

"If only he could do that in school." Terra said.

"Hey, Terra get ready, it'll be your turn next." Whisper said. "But she's going to need a lift." she said looking over at Protoman.

"I'm all over it." he replied. "Condor battlechip in."

"Hold on." Chaud said as the condor materialized beneath his feet and he grabbed Terra and slung her behind him.

"Ok." Whisper said continuing to advise her op. "When you get over the funnel of Lan's twister I want you to jump."

For a second Terra was going to ask 'are you crazy?' but she decided instead to trust her navi. Her surprise however did appear in her face.

"Just trust me Terra, this is going to work, especially when we use that new program that you just finished."

"What program?" Chaud and Protoman asked together.

"It's a surprise." Terra replied hesitantly.

"Ok, NOW!" Whisper called out.

"Well here goes nothing, or everything." Terra said as she jumped into the twisters spinning vortex.

"Ok here we go, air shoes, in and download!" Whisper exclaimed.

"Water whip!" Whisper exclaimed as the sleek weapon formed in Terra's hand and she swiftly slung it around the three darkloids causing them more damage. "Well long time no see." She said as she moved her face only centimeters from Dark Whispers' looking into her dark and unfeeling eyes.

"Just you wait till I get loose, I'm ganna…" Dark Whisper hissed as she struggled to get free.

"Yeah, I'm sure you would." Terra said interrupting her and tighting the water whip more, "To bad you're not going to get loose."

"Go ahead, delete us," Dark Protoman said trying to put Terra between a rock and a hard place, "I just hope you like the net, because if you destroy me you'll be stuck here, I'm the only one here who can send you back."

Terra turned her attention to him. "What do you take me for galacticticly stupid? We figured that out ages ago. And you would have had us in a bind too if I couldn't do this." Terra said as she reached out with her free and took a hold to Dark Protoman's emblem. Once her hand was on it, it began to glow just like it had before.

"What are you doing?" Dark Megaman demanded as he saw Dark Protoman lose control over the dematerialization program.

"Simple." Terra replied. "I'm hacking Dark Protoman here and I reversing the dematerialization program. Hey Chaud can I get a lift out of here?" Terra called as she reached out her hand and not two seconds later Chaud grabbed her and pulled her through the twister. "It's really a shame you darkloids'll never learn." She said as he swung her around again.

"Ok, now it's my turn." Chaud said. "You think you can handle this thing?" he asked Terra over her shoulder.

"Sure can." She replied flipped over him taking over the condor's reigns.

"You ready Protoman?" Chaud asked.

"As always." Protoman replied. "Aqua sword battlechip in, download."

"AAAAAAGGGGGGGRR" Chaud roared as he cut the air and sent the liquid attack through the twister and to the darkloids.

"Lan, come on! You can stop now there's noting more we can do!" Terra called out. Afterwards Lan halted his attack and landed solidly on the condor behind her with the tornado dissipating it reveled the light emanating from Dark Protoman, which was starting to once again consume the entire room.

"AAAAGGGHHHHHHGGGGG," Chaud, Terra and Lan began to groan as the light reached them their cries mixing with that of the darkloids as the energy from the light once again began to change their physical structure. But even though their pain they did here three sets of comforting words before they blacked out.

"Dark Whisper logging out."

"Dark Protoman logging out."

"Dark Megaman logging out."

* * *

"Lan, Terra, Chaud, guys wake up!" all the netnavis said, their voices overlapping as they tried to shake their op's awake. When they did regain consciousness they were all relieved.

"Hey we're back!" Lan exclaimed as he took in his surroundings. Mega, Whisper and Protoman all looked like proud parents.

"Of course you are silly." Mega said ruffling his younger brother's hair. "Where'd you expect to be the moon?"

"I don't know." Lan retorted. "Maybe I thought I'd end up in the undernet." Lan said retaliating the hair ruffle by yanking off Mega's helmet which only led to his blue-black hair to fall in a style that eerily mirrored Dr. Hikari's.

"I'm so glad you ok." Whisper said as she hugged her op and best friend.

"I am too." Terra replied returning the gesture. "Maybe now Regal's gotten the point not to mess with us." Terra said uttering the words knowing like everyone else in the room that they were empty.

"Well I don't want to rain on anyone's parade…" Protoman stared.

"But this is far from over." Chaud finished.

"Umm hum." The others replied agreeing.

TBC


	10. Epilouge

Chapter 10

Epilogue

In the darkness Regal looked upon the screen with disgust. So much love, happiness, innocence and virtue were shared among the people in the room. It made him sick. How blind they all were. Blind to what was really going on. And blind they would be until it would be too late. During those last two missions he had gotten what he has wanted. He had never been after the rare metal or the security codes as they thought. Although they would have been a great bonus he would have readily taken had he defeated the young netsavers. But that didn't happen and really it didn't matter, he has retrieved what he needed. Junk data that flowed from the wounds of those brats and their navis.

"Don't worry." He said looking over at his now prized possessions, his new darkloids had turned out even better than he had hoped. Dark Megaman, Dark Whisper, and Dark Protoman were currently in stasis mode healing from the damage they had sustained. "We will get our revenge, starting with those brats."

He then turned his attention back to his computer moniter. The screen displayed Shademan's materialzation program primed to be transfered into each of the three darkloids.

"They won't know what hit them."

* * *

TBC IN - Related


End file.
